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THE  UBHARY 
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Nrv\VORt'.  , HARHl-  R & BRC  rLKS 


WESLEY, 

AND  METHODISM. 


BY  ISAAC  TAYLOE. 


NEW  YORK: 

HARPER  & BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 


FRANKLIN  SQUARE. 

1860. 


, 11 


^87 

Teiw 


f 

1 

PEEFACE. 


The  Methodism  of  the  last  century,  even  when  consid- 
ered apart  from  its  consequences,  must  always  be  thought 
worthy  of  the  most  serious  regard.  But,  in  fact,  that  great 
religious  movement  has,  immediately  or  remotely,  so  given 
an  impulse  to  Christian  feeling  and  profession,  on  all  sides, 
that  it  has  come  to  present  itself  as  the  starting-point  of 
our  niodern  religious  history..  The  field-preaching  of 
Wesley  and  Whitefield,  in  1739,  was  the  event  whence 
the  religious  epoch,  now  current,  must  date  its  commence- 
ment. Back  to  the  events  of  that  time  must  we  look, 
necessarily,  as  often  as  we  seek  to  trace  to  its  source  what 
is  most  characteristic  of  the  present  time. 

Yet  this  is  not  all,  for  the  Methodism  of  the  past  age 
points  forward  to  the  next-coming  development  of  the 
powers  of  the  Gospel ; and  it  is  especially  as  thus  involv- 
ing what  may  be  called  a predictive  meaning,  that  the 
reader’s  attention  is  now  invited  to  the  subject. 

It  is  also  with  a view  to  the  future — that  is  to  say,  in 
relation  to  those  changes,  a silent  preparation  for  which 
is  now  in  progress,  that  I venture  upon  the  task  of  review- 
ing,  as  announced  on  the  last  page  of  this  volume,  the 
course  and  the  principles  of  the  Nonconformists  of  the 
past  age.  Assuredly  it  is  with  no  thought  of  setting  in  a 
disadvantageous  light  the  good  and  great  men  who  ranged 
themselves  on  that  side  of  the  Protestant  movement  of  the 
times,  that  I enter  upon  such  a service. 


<30x304: 


via 


PREFACE. 


Should  this  task  be  completed,  one  that  must  be  ac- 
counted still  more  venturous  and  difficult,  would  present 
itself  as  next  in  order;  if,  indeed,  it  should  be  permitted 
me  to  complete  a plan  which  should  embody  those  views 
that  seem  to  give  coherence  to  the  past  history  of  Christ- 
ianity, considered  as  a preparation  for  its  destined  univer- 
sality. 


Stanford  Rivers, 
November,  1851. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface vii 

Methodism,  as  related  to  the  present  Time 13 

THE  FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 

The  Founders  of  Methodism : the  two  Wesleys 24 

Early  Stages  of  Wesley’s  religious  course 34 

Wesley’s  early  religious  Connections 38 

The  first  Methodistic  Preaching 41 

Wesley’s  Separation  from  Whitefield 49 

Lay  Preaching,  and  the  Lay  Preachers 54 

Lay  Preaching ; and  a Point  of  Comparison  suggested  between  Meth- 
odism and  Romanism 67 

Wesley,  as  Founder  of  an  Institute 77 

Charles  Wesley 90 

Whitefield 96 

Fletcher 108 

Coke 117 

Lady  Huntingdon 119 

The  Methodistic  Company 127 

THE  SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM. 

The  first  Element  of  Methodism 137 

The  second  Element  of  Methodism 147 

The  third  Element  of  Methodism 159 

The  fourth  Element  of  Methodism  170 

THE  FORM  OF  (WESLEYAN)  METHODISM. 

The  Form  of  (Wesleyan)  Methodism 188 

Wesleyan  Methodism,  a Scheme  of  Evangelic  Aggression 197 

Wesleyan  Methodism,  a Scheme  of  religious  Discipline  and  Instruc- 
tion, toward  the  People 215 

Wesleyan  Methodism,  a Hierarchy,  or  System  of  Spiritual  Government  234 
Wesleyan  Methodism,  an  Establishment,  or  body  Corporate,  related 

to  Civil  Law  and  Equity 246 

THE  METHODISM  OF  THE  TIME  COMING. 

Methodism  of  the  Future 269 

Notes 301 


, m ■ ' ■ 

■ ^ ^r.'’  '.'£'y 

. ■•. ‘Hf-;.’* 


4^ 


NOTICE 


RELATIVE  TO  THE  PORTRAIT  OF  WESLEY 

The  engraving  which  accompanies  this  volume  has  been  ex- 
ecuted, with  much  care,  from  an  outline  in  the  Author’s  posses- 
sion ; and  which  has  been  attributed  to  Worlidge,  whose  imita- 
tions of  Rembrandt  are  well  known  to  amateurs.  That  artist 
died,  however,  long  before  Wesley  had  attained  the  age  which 
the  sketch  represents.  Whoever  was  the  artist,  the  outline  ex- 
hibits a practiced  hand  and  eye,  and  is  full  of  character  : it  was 
said  to  have  been  taken  from  the  sid3  gallery  at  the  Foundery, 
while  Wesley  was  preaching.  This,  at  least,  is  the  tradition 
which  accompanied  it  when  it  came,  many  years  ago,  into  the 
Author’s  hand. 


€ 

i 


METHODISM, 

AS 

RELATED  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


A FORTY  or  FIFTY  YEARS  has  been  the  term,  more  or 
less  clearly  defined,  within  which  each  of  those  revolu- 
^tions  that  mark  the  history  of  the  human  mind  has  had 
its  lise,  has  passed  its  climax,  and  has  gone  forward, 
commingled  with  other  moral  forces,  and  having  its  own 
abated. 

Some  reasons  that  are  quite  obvious,  and  some  that  are 
occult,  and  perhaps  not  cognizable  by  science,  might  be 
assigned  in  explanation  of  a fact  which  obtrudes  itself  as 
we  follow  the  luminous  track  of  those  outbursts  of  light 
and  warmth  which  take  place  in  the  lapse  of  centuries.  It 
might  seem  enough  to  say,  that,  as  every  such  time  of 
renovation  and  movement  takes  its  rise  in  the  bosoms  of 
two  or  three  individual  men,  and  as  these,  for  the  most 
part,  occupy  nearly  the  same  level  as  to  age,  a term  of 
forty  or  fifty  years  gives  the  extreme  limits  of  the  personal 
energy  and  influence  of  any  such  band  of  men  ; and  never 
hitherto  has  any  new  impulse,  or  any  strenuous  moral 
movement,  been  taken  up  and  carried  forward,  bv  the 
sons  and  successors  of  its  originators,  in  the  same  mind, 
oi  with  the  same,  or  with  nearly  the  same  singleness  of 
puipose.  Great  men  do  not  repeat  themselves  in  their 
immediate  followers ; or  if  the  mantle  of  an  Elijah  has 
in  some  rare  instances  rested  upon  an  Elisha,  yet  never, 
hitherto,  has  the  spirit  and  power  of  a company  of  dis- 
tinguished persons  come  upon,  or  remained  with,  those 
who  have  stood  up  to  represent  them  before  the  world. 


14  METHODISM,  AS  RELATED  TO 

Methodism,  it  is  true,  survives  among  us,  and  may  long 
so  survive,  in  its  broad  array,  and  its  ample  frontage  ; but 
the  Methodism  with  which,  in  these  pages,  we  shall  have 
to  do,  went  to  its  place  in  the  history  of  Christianity  when 
its  originators  stepped  off  from  the  scene  of  their  labors. 
An  interval  of  full  sixty  years  since  the  recession  of  the 
men  who  breathed  their  souls  into  it,  is  enough  to  put  us 
in  a vantage  position  for  bringing  this  great  movement 
under  review.  No  disparagement  to  that  body  of  emi- 
nently useful  men  who  now,  in  their  stations,  farm  the 
spiritual  inheritance  bequeathed  to  them  by  their  fathers 
is  intended,  when  we  affirm  that  their  own  peculiar  rela- 
tionship to  those  men — the  fathers  and  founders  of  their 
communion,  appears,  to  the  eye  of  an  impartial  bystander, 
to  be  made  up  more  of  what  is  technical,  or  conventional, 
than  of  what  is  substantial,  in  a purely  religious  sense. 

We  assume  then  that  we,  at  this  time,  stand  far  enough 
off  from  the  Methodism  of  the  last  century  to  enable  us  to 
contemplate  it  with  advantage.  But  another  question  here 
presents  itself  at  the  threshold  of  our  subject ; and  it  re- 
lates to  the  qualifications,  for  their  part,  ot  those  whom  a 
writer  may  suppose  that  he  is  challenging  to  sit  with  him 
in  judgment  upon  the  men  and  the  system  which  are  so  to 
be  reviewed. 

This  second  question  involves  more  than  may  at  first 
appear ; and  it  implicates,  not  merely  the  dispositions  of 
the  writer,  and  of  his  reader,  individually,  but  the  religious 
characteristics  also,  and  the  tendencies  of  the  times  we 
live  in. 

Without  some  self-scrutiny  a writer  should  not  engage 
in  a task  such  as  this;  nor,  without  some  self-recollec- 
tion, should  an  individual  reader  take  his  place  beside  the 
writer ; nor,  without  some  looking  to  itself,  should  the 
Christian  body  of  one  age  allow  itself  to  pass  judgment 
upon  that  of  another  age.  We  must  not  forget  that  there 
is  action  and  reaction  among  moral,  as  well  as  among 
mechanical  forces ; nor  that  every  judgment  we  pronounce 
has  a reciprocal  sense ; and  that,  whether  or  not  it  truly 


THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


lb 


bears  upon  the  one  party,  it  bears  upon  the  other  with 
infallible  precision. 

It  might  seem  superfluous  formally  to  advance  so  obvi- 
ous a truth  as  this — that,  as  often  as  we  cite  another  to  our 
tribunal,  the  sentence  we  utter  has  a double  import,  and 
may  be  read  off  first  as  touching  the  party  so  cited,  and  in 
which  application  it  may  be  an  equitable  decision,  or  quite 
otherwise ; but  that  when  regarded  in  its  reflex  sense,  no 
such  judgment  can  be  fallacious ; and  it  carries  with  it  a 
fearful  certainty,  just  in  proportion  as  it  has  been  deliber- 
ately formed,  and  has  received  the  full  consent  of  mind 
and  heart.  The  metallic  reflector  which  the  astronomer 
presents  to  the  celestial  field  may  image  the  bright  objects 
before  it  truly  or  falsely,  clearly  or  dimly ; but  infalli- 
bly it  gives  notice  of  any  flaws  that  mar  its  own  surface, 
and  tells  of  its  own  variations  from  an  exact  parabolic 
figure. 

A writer  calls  before  him  men  such  as  those  were  who 
originated  Methodism ; and  then,  with  philosophic  ease 
and  a feeling  of  irresponsibility,  he  deals  with  his  worthies, 
and  sets  upon  them  their  price  and  value — mind  and  heart, 
motive,  purpose,  and  intellectual  power,  and  his  reader 
assents,  perhaps,  and  consents,  and  nods  approval  while 
the  arraigned  are  thus  disposed  of  at  the  bar.  But  in 
which  of  its  bearings  does  this  process  of  judgment  con- 
vey most  meaning?  Undoubtedly  in  its  reflex  bearing; 
for,  read  in  this  reverberative  sense,  every  word  tells; 
nor  could-  eternal  justice  itself  ask  for  evidence  more  con- 
clusive than  that  is  which  is  comprised  in  the  deliberately 
pronounced  opinion  which  individually  we  frame,  or  which 
we  assent  to,  when  other  men  are  brought  up  before  us 
for  judgment.  We  decide,  in  each  instance,  according  to 
our  own  dispositions,  our  principles,  and  our  moral  con- 
dition. 

But  what  is  thus  true  individually,  must  be  true  also, 
and  in  a more  comprehensive  sense,  when  a set  of  men, 
or  a certain  marked  revolution  in  the  moral  world,  comes 
on,  as  it  always  does  in  its  course,  to  receive,  in  various 


16  METHODISM,  AS  RELATED  TO 

modes  of  expression,  the  judgment  of  the  times  next  en- 
suing. When  the  vessel,  with  the  wind  in  its  sails,  loosens 
from  its  moorings,  it  is  not  easy  for  those  on  deck  to  resist 
the  belief,  at  first,  that  the  quay,  and  its  lighthouse,  and  the 
ranges  of  docks,  and  the  ships  at  anchor,  have  all  taken 
to  themselves  wings  and  are  flitting  away.  Yet  we  oth 
erwise  think  the  moment  when  our  own  ship  meets  the 
swell  of  the  open  sea.  A similar  involuntary  feeling,  not 
so  soon  corrected,  attaches  to  most  minds  as  often  as  the 
persons,  the  events,  and  the  moral  and  political  condition 
of  other  periods  are  brought  in  review  before  them.  We 
are  at  rest,  we  are  stationary,  having  established  ourselves 
immovably  upon  a certain  terra  firma  of  steadfast  opin- 
ions, usages,  and  modes  of  thinking.  An  infatuation  of 
this  sort  infests  all  minds,  more  or  less,  but  in  some — 
from  constitutional  arrogance,  and  from  the  induration  of 
early  prejudices — the  feeling  is  far  too  strong  to  be  in  any 
way  broken  up  or  disturbed.  Such  persons  hold  a sort 
of  Ptolemaic  idea  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  world 
and,  in  their  view,  sun,  moon,  planets,  stars,  are  all  whirl 
ing  around  the  spot  on  which  they  stand. 

It  is  not  under  the  influence  of  any  such  illusion  as  this 
that  we  now  propose  to  look  back  upon  Methodism  and 
its  authors.  Are  not  we  ourselves,  that  is  to  say,  the 
Christian  community  of  this  passing  moment,  afloat  upon 
the  eddying  Euphrates  of  time?  Is  our  standing  any 
thing  better  than  a foot’s  breadth  upon  a raft  which  is 
whirling  itself  onward,  as  borne  on  the  heaving  bosom 
of  “ many  waters  ? ” If  we  speak  thus  it  is  in  relation  to 
those  specialities  of  opinion,  of  practice,  and  of  feeling, 
which  will  present  themselves  as  the  points  of  contrast 
between  ourselves  and  the  bygone  Methodism.  And  is 
it  certain  that  every  thing  in  respect  of  which  we  may 
find  ourselves  to  differ  from  that  scheme  of  things,  is  a 
difference  in  our  own  favor  ? The  reader  will  not  ask 
the  writer  to  do  his  best  for  holding  him  safe  in  any  such 
conclusion.  Rather  we  go  into  Methodism  ingenuously 
and  modestly,  wishing,  while  in  that  strange  region,  fairly 


THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


17 


to  measure  it,  and  ourselves  also  with  it;  perhaps  to 
gather  thence  some  sharp  lesson  of  humiliation. 

The  Methodism  of  the  18th  century  has,  we  say, 
ceased  to  have  any  extant  representative  among  us. 
None  are  there  now  who,  with  an  entire  congeniality 
of  feeling,  can  interpret  to  us  its  phrases,  or  can  warmly 
and  forcibly  speak  of  it,  and  plead  for  it,  as  a reality 
with  which  they  are  themselves  conversant.  We  must 
be  content  then  to  understand  it  in  our  own  sense,  as  well 
as  we  may. 

A vast  interval,  as  if  it  had  been  of  a thousand  years, 
divides  us,  of  this  present  time,  from  the  obsolete  relig- 
ious condition  of  our  ecclesiastical  progenitors  of  the  last 
century.  The  extent  of  the  revolutions  that  have  come 
in  to  constitute  this  interval,  is  not  to  be  grasped  without 
an  effort  of  thought.  Methodism  itself  has  had  a great 
share  in  bringing  about  these  revolutions;  and  itself  too 
has  undergone  transmutations  greater,  perhaps,  than  those 
that  have  affected  other  communions. 

The  vastness  of  that  religious  and  moral  interval  which 
seventy  or  eighty  years  have  given  room  for,  between 
ourselves  and  our  religious  predecessors,  severally,  to 
whatever  communion  we  may  belong,  will  become  vis- 
ible, or  it  will  make  itself  felt  by  us,  if  we  choose  to 
take  notice  of  it  in  the  course  of  that  review  of  the 
Methodistic  movement  which  we  have  now  in  prospect ; 
and  the  reader  is  here  invited  to  give  attention  to  those 
indications  which  will  meet  him  of  the  fact — that  every 
religious  community  among  us  has  distanced  its  place  as 
abreast  of  the  Methodism  of  the  last  century  by  many 
leagues,  of  which  they  have  taken  little  or  no  reckoning. 
The  reader,  to  whatever  body  he  may  belong,  will  be 
advertised  of  the  fact  of  this  unconscious  movement  in 
different  modes. 

During  these  sixty,  or  seventy,  or  eighty  years  that 
have  slipped  by,  the  absolute  number  of  persons  in  En- 
gland, or  the  proportion  of  such  persons,  has  vastly  in- 
creased, whose  range  of  view,  in  matters  of  religion,  has 


18 


METHODISM,  AS  RELATED  TO 


been  so  much  widened  that,  in  disregard  of  sectarian 
restrictions,  and  even  holding  in  abeyance  some  notions 
which  they  have  not  discarded,  they  are  more  than 
coldly  willing  to  think  and  speak  of  Wesley  and  of 
Whitefield  as  great  and  good  men,  and  to  admit  their 
claim  to  stand  prominent  among  the  benefactors  of  their 
country,  and  the  worthies  of  all  time.  Concomitant  with 
the  increase  of  this  class  of  liberally-feeling  religious  per- 
sons, upon  whose  assent  and  consent  a writer  may  safely 
rely,  there  is  a proportionate  decrease  of  the  number  of 
those  who  would  tolerate,  or  approve  of  that  style  of 
frigid  levity, — half  banter,  half  admiration,  and  whole 
infidelity — which,  only  thirty  years  ago,  passed  as  the 
appropriate  mode  in  which  a candid  and  philosophic 
writer  should  deal  with  Methodism. 

At  this  moment  then — and  the  change  indicates  an  im- 
measurable advance  and  improvement — there  is  a large 
class  of  religious  persons,  or  more  strictly  speaking,  there 
are  several  such  classes,  who  would  demand,  in  a writer 
upon  Methodism,  far  more  of  serious  purpose,  and  more 
of  sympathy  with  what  is  great  and  good,  and  more 
depth  of  thought — in  a word,  more  of  reality — than 
would  have  been  required  only  thirty  years  ago.  Wes- 
ley, Whitefield,  and  their  companions  seem,  therefore,  so 
far  to  have  gained  upon  us  of  late ; and  so  it  is  that  a 
writer  may  now  speak  of  these  worthies  cordially,  and 
yet  not  incur  the  risk  of  being  called  “Methodist.” 

And  then,  during  the  lapse  of  this  same  period,  the  re- 
ligious body  has  so  much  come  into  the  habit  of  refining 
upon  its  own  principles,  and  it  has  so  far  drawn  itself  in 
from  all  extremes,  and  it  has  become  so  nicely  observant 
of  proprieties,  and  is  so  abhorrent  of  excesses,  and  it  is 
so  discreet,  that  when,  with  truthfulness  and  impartiality, 
the  unpleasing  characteristics  of  Methodism  (at  its  rise) 
are  noted,  and  when  the  errors  fallen  into  by  its  founders, 
the  irregularities  which  were  sanctioned  by  them,  and  the 
illusions  of  which  they  were  the  victims,  are,  with  tem- 
per and  precision  specified,  a writer  may  be  sure  that  his 


THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


19 


readers  (very  few  excepted)  are  going  with  him,  and  will 
be  prompt  to  give  a verdict  on  the  same  side,  upon  every 
count  of  the  indictment.  The  refinements  and  the  relig- 
ious tact  and  taste  of  this  time,  make  the  task  a very  easj 
one,  of  marking  for  disapproval  and  rejection  whatever 
in  the  early  Methodism  may  seem  to  be  obnoxious  to 
criticism. 

But  just  at  this  point  the  modern  religious  reader’s  un- 
hesitating approval  is  likely  to  receive  a decisive  check. 
He  would,  indeed,  resent  it  if  Wesley  and  Whitefield 
were  treated  flippantly ; or  if  a want  of  sympathy  were 
shown  with  what  is  noble  in  their  conduct  and  character. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  allows  their  faults  and  errors  to  be 
temperately  specified ; but  when  this  has  been  done — a 
writer  who  would  fain  look  at  Methodism  as  it  appears 
from  an  elevated  position,  whence  the  entire  course  of 
Christian  history  comes  also  within  the  range  of  sight, 
and  who,  in  the  spirit  of  serious  belief,  endeavors  to  sep- 
arate the  accidents  of  the  system  from  those  things  which 
were  its  substance — such  a writer  will  know  that  he  must 
not  expect  to  find  his  reader  prepared  to  go  forward  with 
him  as  cordially  as  before.  This  same  period — this  sixty 
years — which  has  made  us  so  much  more  liberal,  and 
in  a sense,  more  serious  too,  than  were  our  fathers,  and 
in  which  refinement  and  discretion  have  done  so  much  for 
us,  has  touched — not  our  creeds  indeed,  so  as  to  remove 
any  one  article  from  them ; but  it  has  touched  the  depths 
of  our  convictions  as  to  the  whole,  and  as  to  several 
points  of  our  belief.  There  is  little,  perhaps,  in  the  cycle 
of  our  predecessors’  confession  of  faith  which,  if  chal- 
lenged to  relinquish  it,  we  should  consent  to  see  erased. 
But,  whether  we  be  distinctly  conscious  of  the  fact  or 
not,  there  has  come  to  stand  over  against  each  article  of 
that  belief  a counterbalance — an  influence  of  abatement, 
an  unadjusted  surmise,  an  adverse  feeling,  neither  assent- 
ed to,  nor  dismissed,  but  which  holds  the  mind  in  perpet- 
ual suspense.  The  creed  of  this  time  is — let  us  say — 
word  for  word,  the  creed  of  sixty  years  ago  ; but  if  such 


20 


METHODISM,  AS  RELATED  TO 


a simile  might  be  allowed,  these  items  of  our  ‘‘Confes- 
sion” now  fill  one  side  of  a balance  sheet,  on  the  other 
side  of  which  there  stands  a heavy  charge  which  has  not 
yet  been  ascertained  or  agreed  to. 

If  this  alleged  state  of  the  case  be  resented — as  it 
will,  by  some — it  will  be  tacitly  assented  to  by  the  more 
thoughtful  and  ingenuous  reader.  Such  persons  will  often 
be  saying  to  themselves  in  reviewing  the  early  Method- 
ism, and  in  listening  to  its  wakening  voice,  “ I do  not 
deny  that  there  is  truth  here  ; but,  as  to  myself,  I have 
little  or  no  sympathy  with  it ; on  the  contrary,  I draw 
back  from  it.”  This  feeling,  this  honest  acknowledgment, 
measures  as  it  indicates,  the  width  of  that  space  which 
intervenes  between  ourselves  and  that  which  was  of  the 
very  substance  of  Methodism  : it  may  indicate  also  the 
difference  between  our  outward  conventional  selves,  and 
the  “ inner  man.” 

In  anticipation  of  meeting,  in  his  reader,  a reserved 
and  hesitating  accordance  as  to  much  with  which  we 
shall  have  to  do,  the  writer  would  at  once  plant  a firm 
foot  on  the  ground  he  intends  to  occupy. 

In  attempting  to  treat  a subject  such  as  the  one  before 
us,  a choice  must  necessarily  be  made  among  the  three 
assumptions  following : 

1st,  It  may  be  said  that  Christianity  being  true  in  the 
sense  of  this  or  that  Church,  Methodism  ought  to  be 
rejected  as  a spurious  development  of  it ; and  that  its 
founders  should  be  solemnly  denounced  as  schismatics 
and  enthusiasts. 

Or,  secondly,  that  neither  Christianity  nor  Methodism 
being  true  in  its  own  sense ; but  both  true  in  the  much 
abated  sense  of  the  recent  spiritualizing  philosophy,  there- 
fore while  both  alike  may  claim  some  kindly  regard, 
neither  of  them  is  entitled  to  any  submission. 

Or,  thirdly^  that  Christianity  being  true,  without  abate- 
ment, in  its  own  sense,  Methodism,  as  a genuine  develop- 
ment of  its  principal  elements,  must  be  religiously  re- 
garded as  such ; while  yet  it  may  be  open  to  exceptions 


THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


21 


on  many  grounds,  as  the  product  of  minds  more  good 
and  fervent,  than  always  well-ordered. 

This  last  supposition  is  then  our  ground;  and  in  as- 
suming it,  while  we  use  the  liberty  it  allows,  we  yield 
without  fear  to  the  consequences  it  draws  with  it,  be  they 
what  they  may. 

These  consequences  are  momentous;  for  we  can  not 
allow  Methodism  to  have  been  a genuine  development 
of  the  principal  elements  of  Christianity,  without  admit- 
ting it  to  take  a prominent  place  in  that  providential 
system  which  embraces  all  time,  and  which,  from  age  to 
age,  has,  with  increasing  clearness,  been  unfolding  itself, 
and  becoming  cognizable  by  the  human  mind.  So  far  as 
Methodism  truly  held  forth  Christianity,  it  was  a signal 
holding  of  it  forth ; for  a more  marked  utterance  of  the 
Gospel  has  occurred  only  once  before  in  the  lapse  of 
eighteen  centuries ; and  that,  at  the  Reformation,  was 
not  less  disparaged  than  this  is  by  a large  admixture  of 
the  errors  and  inconsistencies  of  its  movers  or  adherents. 

Christianity,  given  to  the  world  at  once  in  the  ministry 
and  writings  of  the  Apostles,  has,  from  the  first  moment 
to  this,  held  its  onward  course  under  a system  of  ad- 
ministration inscrutable  indeed  as  a whole,  or  as  to  its 
reasons  and  yet  not  entirely  occult.  On  the  contrary,  at 
moments.  Heaven’s  economy  has  seemed  to  receive  a 
bright  beam,  as  through  a dense  cloud,  making  conspic- 
uous, if  not  the  motives  of  the  divine  government,  yet  the 
fact.  The  Reformation  is  held  by  Protestants  to  have 
been  such  a manifestation  of  the  providence  of  God  in 
restoring  the  Gospel,  and  in  proclaiming  it  anew  among 
the  nations ; and  thus  the  events  of  the  sixteenth  century 
brought  out  ^ view  that  which  is  always  real,  whether 
visible  or  not — namely,  a divine  interposition — maintain- 
ing truth  in  the  world,  and  giving  it  a fresh  expansion 
from  time  to  time.*  In  perfect  analogy  with  the  events 
of  the  Reformation  were  those  which  attended  the  rise 
and  progress  of  Methodism. 

What  may  be  the  relative  value  or  importance  of  these 

\ 

vw^  owV  VAv  XaA.  ■ . . , . | 


22  METHODISM,  AS  RELATED  TO 

two  courses  of  events  is  not  a question  we  are  now  con- 
cerned with  ; and  it  may  easily  be  allowed  that  the  for- 
mer surpassed  the  latter  in  importance ; but  that  the  one, 
as  well  as  the  other,  was  a marked  development  of  the 
scheme  which  is  moving  forward  toward  the  subjugation 
of  the  human  family  to  the  Gospel,  is  here  confidently 
maintained. 

In  making  good  this  position,  it  will  be  well,  and  espe- 
cially for  the  purpose  of  setting  ourselves  clear  of  all 
entanglements  as  to  the  personal  merits  or  demerits  of 
the  men  who  were  the  prime  movers  or  originators  of 
Methodism,  to  gain  as  distinct  an  idea  as  we  can  of  each 
of  them,  as  to  those  qualities,  intellectual  and  moral,  which 
make  the  individuality  of  each.  Such  an  idea  must  of 
course,  be  gathered  from  the  incidents  of  his  life ; which, 
however,  it  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  repeat ; for  these 
have  been  often  and  well  recounted,  and  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed that  they  are  familiarly  known  by  almost  every 
reader.  If,  in  the  exercise  of  due  discrimination,  we 
succeed  in  placing  Wesley,  Whitefield,  and  others  in 
their  true  position,  we  shall  be  free  to  consider  what,  in 
its  substance,  Methodism  was ; and  next  to  entertain  an 
inquiry  as  to  the  diffused  influence  of  this  movement 
upon  other  communions,  and  to  ask  also  what  probably 
may  be  the  ulterior  product  of  it  as  related  to  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  times  next  ensuing. 

This  sort  of  continuity  is  necessarily  implied  when 
it  is  affirmed  that  Methodism,  as  did  the  Reformation, 
formed  a signal  epoch  in  religious  history;  for  every 
event,  or  course  of  events,  that  may  deserve  to  be  so 
spoken  of,  must  stand  related  to  the  future  as  well  as 
to  the  past  Methodism,  the  coherent  dependence  of 
which  upon  the  Reformation  may  be  traced,  will,  no 
doubt,  be  seen  also  to  reappear  among  those  greater  re- 
ligious movements  which  are  destined  next  to  agitate 
the  social  system.  An  attempt  to  predict  distinctly  those 
future  movements  ought  to  be  reprehended  as  presump- 
tuous : nevertheless,  it  may  be  warrantable  to  pursue  an 


THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


23 


analogy  thus  far:  that  is  to  say,  while  considering  the  re- 
lationship of  Methodism  to  the  Reformation,  to  consider 
also^  what  it  is  to  which  Methodism  may  have  been  the 
proper  preliminary,  or  to  what  order  of  events,  yet  future, 
it  may  seem  to  point. 

Hitherto  the  intervals  have  been  long  between  one  re- 
markable religious  era  and  the  next.  At  present  the  be- 
lief is  strong  and  general,  whether  resting  upon  any  suf-  ^ 
ficient  grounds  or  not,  that  such  intervening  periods  will 
be  cut  short,  and  that  all  things  are  now  hastening  to 
reach  their  final  results. 


.A  ^ 


-vi  v‘vJ^ . 3U  - 


\Ws!L.'.  • Si 

' ' ' ;-  i 

j!'  jfc;:,  ^ ^ jb  Vjxk 

V^.  ^ )L  d4|vad^  UA-k 


_ !(0 


- A "fe: ' ■'^  ..  ^ ^ 

U.;,  / 


‘•A^v-_  • p : cyV.A.vCJt^ 

.A  a VJU^  .'.w,^.;. 


'j 

">• -ii.  / 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


THE  TWO  WESLEYS. 

The  band  of  men  who  had  already  attracted  the  eye 
of  the  world  in  the  year  1740,  and  who,  most  of  them, 
finished  their  labors  some  time  before  the  close  of  the  cen- 
tury, were  connected  together,  partly  by  the  ties  of  natural 
affection,  or  of  Christian  love,  partly  by  voluntary  com- 
pact and  subordination,  as  members  of  a religious  associa- 
tion, and  partly  by  no  stricter  tie  than  that  of  a discordant 
accordance  in  promoting,  separately,  the  same  great  pur- 
poses. Methodism  did  not  appear  before  the  world  as  if 
it  had  issued  from  a conclave ; for  although  it  came  to  be 
ruled  mainly  (but  never  wholly)  by  one  master  spirit,  it 
was  not  devised,  plotted,  modeled,  touched,  and  retouched 
by  its  two  or  three  protectors,  who,  when  thus  they  had 
set  their  hands  to  its  code,  prudently  hushed  their  individ- 
ual opinions,  and  presented  a front  of  unanimity  to  the 
world.  This  was  true  of  Jesuitism  ; but  it  was  not  true 
of  Methodism. 

Methodism  rose  as  great  rivers  do,  from  several  springs 
of  nearly  equal  volume ; and  it  spread  and  strengthened 
itself  as  much  by  its  contrarieties  as  by  its  agreements ; 
and  eventually  the  great  ends  of  this  movement  were  se- 
cured by  a doctrinal  antagonism  that  was  not  then,  and 
and  has  not  since  been  adjusted.  As  a matter  of  mere 
convenience,  and  to  avoid  circumlocution,  we  speak  of 
Wesley  and  his  colleagues  as  one  ; but,  in  truth,  they  were 
not  one;  and  their  individuality,  and  their  independent 
concurrence,  and  their  opposed  proceedings,  are  facts  es- 
sentially attaching  to  the  history  of  this  course  of  events. 
We  must  bring  them,  therefore,  into  view  singly  in  their 


THE  TWO  WESLEYS. 


25 

distinct  personality;  and  this,  as  we  have  said,  is  best  done 
before  the  great  features  of  Methodism  as  a whole  come 
to  be  considered. 

But  with  what  order  of  men  is  it  that  we  have  now  to 
do  ? Let  it  be  confessed  that  this  company  does  not  in- 
clude one  mind  of  that  amplitude  and  grandeur,  the  con- 
3 templation  of  which,  as  a natural  object — a sample  of  hu- 
«xmanity — excites  a pleasurable  awe,  and  swells  the  bosom 
with  a vague  ambition,  or  with  a noble  emulation.  Not 
■i  I"' one  of  the  founders  of  Methodism  can  claim  to  stand  on 
I any  such  high  level ; nor  was  one  of  them  gifted  with  the 
^ philosophic  faculty — the  abstractive  and  analytic  power. 

‘ ^ More  than  one  was  a shrewd  and  exact  logician,  but  none 
master  of  the  higher  reason.  Not  one  was  erudite  i: 

^ ^ naore  than  an  ordinary  degree ; not  one  was  an  accom.- 
/ ^ ‘ plished  scholar  ; yet  while  several  were  fairly  learned, 
1 .^^few  were  illiterate,  and  none  showed  themselves  to  be  im- 
^ Jbued  with  the  fanaticism  of  ignorance. 

5^  Powers  of  popular  oratory  were  among  them  such  as 
to  set  them  far  out  of  the  reach  of  rivalry  with  any  of  their 
contemporaries,  in  the  pulpit.  Not  one  was  a great  wri- 
ter ; but  several  of  them  knew  how  to  hold  the  ear  of  men 
with  an  absolute  mastery.  As  to  administrative  tact  a 
skill  in  government,  the  world  has  given  them  (or  their 
chief)  more  praise  than  they  or  he  deserved,  while  baf- 
fled in  its  own  perplexed  endeavor  to  solve  the  problem 
of  Methodism,  in  ignorance  of  the  main  cause  of  its  spread 
and  permanence.  Apart  from  the  gratuitous  supposition 
of  a profound  craft,  as  the  intellectual  distinction  of  .Wes- 
ley, “what  intelligible  account  shall  we  be  able  to  give  of 
Methodism  ?”  No  credible  account  can  be  given  of  it 
by  aid  of  any  such  supposition,  nor  until  the  presence  of 
causes  has  been  recognized,  of  which  the  philosophy  of 
such  persons  knows  nothing. 

The  persons  claiming  to  be  named  as  the  founders 
of  Methodism,  or  as  principally  concerned  in  its  rise 
and  spread,  are — John  and  Charles  Wesley,  Whitefield, 
Fletchei,  Coke,  and  Lady  Huntingdon.  Of  the  lay  preach 

B 


26 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


ers,  that  is  to  say,  those  who  were  Wesley's  helpers  and 
instruments,  several  were  men  gifted  in  an  extraordinary 
manner ; nor  can  their  memoirs  be  looked  into  by  a gen- 
erous and  Christianly-minded  reader  without  emotion  or 
benefit.  But  these  men  do  not  appear  individually,  or 
singly^  to  have  left  their  own  impression  upon  Metn^dism  ; 
and  here,  while  a place  is  saved  for  a very  few  exceptions, 
it  may  be  affirmed  that  it  is  not  given  to  men  of  no  early 
discipline,  or  who  have  not,  before  attaining  middle  life, 
made  good  their  want  of  education  by  extraordinary  ef- 
forts, to  exert  much  influence  extending  beyond  their  im- 
mediate sphere,  or  which  can  last  a year  after  the  moment 
of  their  death.  It  is  the  prerogative  of  the  educated  class 
to  extend  themselves,  by  the  products  of  their  minds,  over 
space  and  time. 

Dissimilar  as  they  were,  as  men,  it  is  yet  not  easy  to 
speak  of  John  and  Chaides  Wesley  separately;  for  the 
influences  affecting  in  common  the  early  course  of  the 
brothers,  though  affecting  them  very  diversely,  can  be 
properly  spoken  of  only  as  constituting  one  .order  of 
things. 

The  rectory  at  Epworth  might  be  brought  forward  as 
an  instance  in  abatement  of  much  that  has  lately  been 
said  of  the  “ state  of  religion  and  the  Church”  in  the  early 
part  of  the  last  century ; — ^just  as  Luther's  home  contra- 
dicts the  exaggerations  in  which  some  Reformation-cham- 
pions have  indulged  themselves.  That  rectory  was  not 
a solitary  instance ; it  was  a sample^  if  not  of  many,  of 
more  than  a few,  clerical  homes  ; and  besides,  it  furnished 
indirect  evidence  concerning  another  main  element  of  the 
religious  condition  of  England  at  that  time,  and  wffiich  is 
too  little  regarded.  The  characteristics  and  the  excel- 
lences of  the  antecedent  and  contemporary  nonconformity, 
were  there  extant — in  an  occult  manner,  perhaps,  and  yet 
really.  Some  of  the  very  choicest  samples  of  the  firm, 
consistent,  English  Christian  character  have  been  the  pro- 
duct of  the  non-conforming  or  puritanical  soul,  blended 
with  the  better-ordered  and  more  broadly-based  Christian 


THE  TWO  WESLEYS. 


27 


temperament  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  Need  we  name 
Leighton,  Tillolson,  Butler,  Seeker,  as  instances  ? While, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  brightest  adornments  of  noncon- 
formity have  been  men  who,  having  been  bred  in  that 
Church,  were  thrust  out  of  it. 

Wesley,  the  father,  had  renounced  nonconformity,  and 
had  cordially  surrendered  himself  to  the  guidance  and 
control  of  the  Church : he  had  put  off  the  dissident,  so  far 
as  he  could,  or  as  far  as  he  was  conscious  of  it ; but  he 
could  not  lay  down  that  in  nonconformity  which  belonged 
to  the  inner  man.  A stern  moral  force,  and  a religious 
individuality,  went  with  him  into  the  Church,  nor  left  him 
as  he  entered  it ; and  it  showed  itself  as  an  inherited  qual- 
ity in  his  sons.  It  must  not  be  regarded  as  a refinement, 
when  it  is  affirmed  that  the  special  characteristics  of  re- 
ligious communities — that  is  to  say,  those  properties  that 
visibly  mark  such  bodies — do  go  down  to  the  second, 
third,  and  fourth  generation,  in  the  instance  of  families 
that  have  walked  forth  from  the  inclosure  within  which 
they  were  born  and  bred.  Family  peculiarities  may  have 
disappeared — the  physical  type,  perhaps,  has  been  lost ; 
and  yet  a note  of  the  religious  pedigree  survives,  and  re- 
appears in  grandchildren,  sons  and  daughters.  The  Wes- 
leys— John  and  Charles,  if  not  Samuel — inherited  from 
both  father  and  mother,  qualities  most  serviceable  for 
their  after  work,  which  their  father,  if  not  mother,  would 
have  disallowed  and  rooted  out  from  their  bosoms.  So  it 
is  that  Heaven  takes  care  of  the  original  temper  of  its 
tools. 

Mind  is  from  the  mother : such  we  conclude  to  be  a 
law  of  nature,  on  the  evidence  of  very  many  bright  in- 
stances. The  Wesleys  had  the  advantage  of  this  law; 
and  their  mother,  a woman  of  extraordinary  intelligence 
and  force  of  mind,  of  correct  judgment,  and  vivid  ap- 
prehension of  truth,  conferred  also  upon  her  sons  whatever 
advantage  they  might  derive  from  her  composite  excel- 
lence as  a zealous  churchwoman — yet  rich  in  a dowry  of 
nonconforming  virtues.  The  Wesleyan  organization  of  an 


28 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


after  period,  which  gave  life,  consistency,  and  permanence 
to  Methodism,  may  we  not  trace  it  up  to  its  spring  head, 
in  the  conforming  nonconformity  which  the  brothers  had 
imbibed  with  their  mother’s  milk?— a bold  following  out 
of  a conscientious  belief,  still  governed  by  the  love  of 
order,  and  an  abhorrence  of  anarchy,  and  of  individual 
willfulness.  The  Wesleys’  mother  was  the  mother  of 
Methodism  in  a religious  and  moral  sense ; for,  her  cour- 
age, her  submissiveness  to  authority,  the  high  tone  of  her 
mind,  its  independence,  and  its  self-control,  the  warmth 
of  her  devotional  feelings,  and  the  practical  direction 
given  to  them,  came  up,  and  were  visibly  repeated  in  the 
character  and  conduct  of  her  sons. 

When  Mrs.  Wesley,  writing  to  her  husband  concern- 
ing the  irregular  services  she  had  carried  on  during  his 
absence,  in  the  rectory  kitchen,  for  the  benefit  of  her 
poor  neighbors,  said — “ Do  not  advise,  but  command  me 
to  desist,” — she  was  bringing  to  its  place  a corner  stone 
of  the  future  Methodism.  In  this  emphatic  expression  of 
a deep  compound  feeling,  a powerful  conscientious  im- 
pulse, and  a fixed  principle  of  submission  to  rightful 
authority,  there  was  condensed  the  very  law  of  her  son’s 
course  as  the  founder  and  legislator  of  a sect.  This 
equipoise  of  forces  which,  if  they  act  apart,  and  when 
not  thus  balanced,  have  brought  to  nothing  so  many  hope- 
ful movements,  gave  that  consistency  to  Methodism,  to 
which  it  owes  its  permanence.  If  the  Wesleys  had 
started  on  their  way — let  us  suppose  it — fired  with  the 
same  evangelic  zeal,  but  impelled  also  by  the  modern 
political  fanaticism,  which  assails  every  authointy  as  a 
strong-hold  of  Satan,  that  zeal  would  quickly  have  given 
place  in  their  own  bosoms  to  a turbulent  rancor,  and 
in  the  time  that  followed  toward  the  close  of  Wesley’s 
course,  every  Wesleyan  congregation  throughout  En- 
gland would  have  been  a club,  fraternizing  with  those  of 
France.  - 

The  belief  of  being  destined  to  the  achievement  of  a 
great  work  has  probably  sprung  up,  at  an  early  age,  in  the 


THE  TWO  WESLEYS. 


29 


mind  of  every  man  whose  destiny  this  has  actually  been. 
Doubtless,  also,  a vague  feeling  of  this  sort  has  heaved 
the  bosom  of  many  an  aspiring  boy,  who,  in  fact,  never 
makes  himself  known  to  fame — some,  because  they  were 
wanting  in  the  inborn  quality  for  any  such  work;  and 
some  from  the  want  of  opportunity.  There  are,  how- 
ever, grounds  for  believing  that  a call  has  been  heard 
in  the  still  moments  of  every  youth’s  eager  onward 
course,  who  in  manhood  has  led  other  minds.  It  was 
so  with  John  Wesley,  if  not  with  Charles,  and  his  rescue, 
as  by  miracle,  from  the  fire  at  the  rectory,  gave  point 
to  such  a feeling,  which  fixed  itself  in  his  motto,  “ Is  not 
this  a brand  plucked  from  the  burning  ?” 

Wesley’s  instinct  of  belief,  which  was  a prominent 
characteristic  of  his  mind,  met  no  counteractive  force 
in  its  structure,  which  was  not  at  all  of  the  philosophic 
cast.  He  reasoned^  more  than  he  thought:  this,  how- 
ever, is  a too  significant  fact  not  to  claim  distinct  con- 
sideration hereafter.  The  often-told  story  of  “ Jeffery’s” 
tricks,  and  antics  at  the  Epworth  parsonage,  need  not 
in  this  place  be  repeated ; but  they  must  be  alluded  to  in 
passing,  for  this  strange  episode  in  his  early  history  took 
effect  upon  Wesley  in  a decisive  manner.  Might  we  say 
that  it  so  laid  open  his  faculty  of  belief,  as  that  a “right 
of  way”  for  the  supernatural  was  opened  through  his 
mind,  and  to  the  end  of  his  life  there  was  nothing  so  mar- 
velous that  it  could  not  freely  pass,  where  “Jeffery”  had 
passed  before  it. 

In  thus  speaking,  we  are  far  from  intending  to  make 
light  of  so  well-attested  and  remarkable  a story  as  that  of 
the  long-continued  noises  and  jostlings  of  the  Epworth 
imp.  There  is  no  need,  in  an  instance  like  this,  to  feel  as 
if  the  alternative  were  either  to  reject  a mass  of  well  sus- 
tained and  copious  evidence  ; or,  if  it  be  admitted,  then 
to  talk  of  “Divine  interpositions”  or  “miracles,”  and  so 
to  make  ourselves  liable  to  the  indeterminate  question, 
“ What  purpose,  worthy  of  God,  can  be  subserved  by 
these,  or  similar  occurrences  ?”  The  mistake  is,  when 


30 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


such  occurrences  are  not  of  a kind  that  can  be  rejected 
as  tricks  or  fictions,  immediately  to  attribute  to  them  a 
religious  meaning,  or  to  see  in  them  the  hand  of  Heaven. 

Why  should  any  such  hypothesis  be  resorted  to  ? — we 
do  not  so  think  in  parallel  instances.  Once  in  a century, 
or  not  so  often,  on  a summer’s  evening,  a stray  Arabian 
locust — a genuine  son  of  the  desert — tempest-borne,  we 
know  not  how,  has  alighted  in  Hyde  Park,  or  elsewhere. 
This  rare  occurrence,  and  which  it  is  so  difficult  to  ex- 
plain, is  indeed  out  of  the  course  of  nature ; but  it  is  not 
supernatural ; certainly  it  is  not  a religious  event.  Nor, 
to  judge  of  them  by  their  apparent  characteristics,  are 
many  other  inexplicable  occurrences,  similar  to  the  Ep- 
worth  rectory  noises  and  disturbances,  to  be  thought  of 
as  touching  any  religious  question.  In  truth,  there  is  no- 
thing in  these  facts  of  a celestial  complexion ; nor  are 
they  grave  enough  to  be  reputed  infernal.  We  can  incur 
no  risk  of  committing  sacrilege  when  we  deal  with  oc- 
cult folk,  such  as  “ Jeflfery,”  huffingly  and  disrespectfully. 
Almost,  while  intent  upon  these  quaint  performances,  one 
seems  to  catch  a glimpse  of  a creature — half-intelligent, 
or  idiotic,  whose  pranks  are  like  those  of  one  that,  using 
a brief  opportunity  given  it  by  chance,  is  going  to  the 
extent  of  its  tether  in  freaks  of  bootless  mischief. 

Why  may  not  this  be  thought  ? Around  us,  as  most 
believe,  are  beings  of  a high  order,  whether  good  or  evil, 
and  yet  not  cognizable  by  the  senses  of  man.  But  the 
analogies  of  the  visible  world  favor  the  supposition  that, 
besides  these  there  are  orders,  or  specip,  of  all  grades, 
and  some,  perhaps,  not  more  intelligent  than  apes  or  than 
pigs.  That  these  species  have  no  liberty,  ordinarily,  to 
infringe  upon  the  solid  world  is  manifest ; nevertheless, 
chances,  or  mischances,  may,  in  long  cycles  of  time, 
throw  some  (like  the  Arabian  locust)  over  his  boundary, 
and  give  him  an  hour’s  leave  to  disport  himself  among 
things  palpable. 

In  Wesley’s  mind  all  instances  went  on  to  their  utmost 
limits,  and  with  him  the  preternatural  was  equivalent 


THE  TWO  WESLEYS. 


31 


always  to  the  supernatural ; nor  does  he  seem  to  have 
noted  the  distinction  between  what  is  supernatural  and 
what  is  miraculous ; and  thus  every  thing  not  ostensibly 
natural,  he  was  prone  to  interpret  in  a sense  wholly  re- 
ligious. This  credulity  did  not  sensibly  impair  a mind  so 
high-toned  and  vigorous  as  his  ; but,  beside  that  it  gave 
the  world  an  occasion  against  him,  and  lowered  his  influ- 
ence out  of  the  pale  of  his  own  communion,  it  set  a pre- 
mium within  it  upon  marvels,  and  tended  to  throw  con- 
fusion upon  the  popular  notion  of  religious  faith.  Besides, 
in  minds  of  a relaxed  temperament,  credulity  is  a leakage 
through  which  all  belief,  sooner  or  later,  oozes  out  and  is 
lost.  But  we  shall  see  presently  in  what  way  Methodism 
at  length  shook  off  this  ill-adjunct,  which  had  sprung  from 
the  infirmity  of  its  founder. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  man,  that  Wesley’s  self-pos- 
session, his  ardor  in  study,  and  the  powerful  instinct  of 
order  within  him,  so  operated  to  render  him  unconscious 
of  outward  ills,  that  he  could  look  back  upon  his  boyish 
days  at  Christchurch,  not  merely  without  horror,  hut  with 
delight ! If,  as  a general  truth,  it  be  good  for  a man  “ to 
bear  the  yoke  in  his  youth,”  indispensable  is  this  severe 
condition  in  the  training  of  those  who  are  born  to  com- 
mand. Wesley  learned,  as  a boy,  to  suffer  wrongfully 
with  a cheerful  patience,  and  to  conform  himself  to  cruel 
despotisms  without  acquiring  either  the  slave’s  temper, 
or  the  despot’s.  If  an  ill  consequence  resulted  from  the 
severities  of  his  school  course,  it  appeared  long  after- 
ward, in  those  misunderstandings  of  human  nature  which 
he  embodied  in  the  code  of  the  Kingswood  school : he 
seems  to  have  imagined  that  little  boys,  as  a species,  are 
much  like  what,  as  he  remembered,  John  Wesley  was  at 
twelve  and  thirteen,  a prodigy  of  energy,  assiduity,  and 
unconquerable  patience. 

Oxford  at  once  brought  out  the  robustness  of  Wesley’s 
intellectual  structure.  To  speak  of  that  ability  which 
enabled  him,  with  ease,  to  make  himself  master  of  any 
subject  to  which  he  directed  his  attention,  is  saying  little ; 


32 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


for  the  same  may  be  affirmed  of  hundreds  of  men  of  whom 
the  world  hears  nothing  after  they  have  won  for  them- 
selves their  academic  status,  Wesley  was  thus  almost 
intuitively  master  of  all  arts — or  of  all  but  the  highest,  to 
hich  the  predominance  of  secondary  faculties  bars  the 
way.  Many  facts  characteristic  of  himself,  and  of  the 
system  he  gave  to  the  world,  are  explicable  on  this  ground 
of  that  energy  of  the  intuitive  reason  which  precludes  the 
philosophical  faculty.  Yet  this  intellectual  characteristic 
in  Wesley  is  not  to  be  spoken  of  with  regret,  if  we  are 
thinking  of  the  work  he  was  to  accomplish ; for  it  is  cer- 
tain that  while  the  power  which  was  his  characteristic  fits 
a man  to  lead  and  command  others,  the  philosophic  faculty 
— its  opposite — shows  itself  to  be  a peremptory  disqualifi- 
cation in  any  one  who  would  sway  the  multitude.  The 
mass  of  men  follow,  or  think  they  follow,  the  well-forged 
chains  of  reasoning  which  logicians  deal  in ; and  they 
delight  to  find  themselves  ferried  over  a stream  they  could 
never  have  forded,  and  safely  landed  upon  some  irrefra- 
gable conclusion.  The  very  populace  like  to  be  reasoned 
with,  and  to  be  forcibly  driven  in  upon  a definite  doctrine; 
but  no  graces  of  illustration,  no  powers  of  oratory,  ever 
avail  to  induce  the  crowd  to  think,  or  to  tread  the  bottom 
’ a subject. 

Yet  in  speaking  of  Wesley  as  a master  of  technical 
logic,  we  must  screen  him  at  once  from  the  imputation  of 
ever  having  played  the  part  of  a scholastic  sophist,  or 
wordy  wrangler.  The  high  tone  of  his  mind,  and  the 
thorough  seriousness  which  belonged  to  him,  and  his 
reverence  for  truth,  and,  afterward,  his  religious  awe, 
forbade  him  to  engage  as  gladiator  in  any  disputation. 
Such  an  imputation  he  resented  warmly.  Many  indeed 
were  the  sophisms  (logically  compacted)  which  he  him- 
self bowed  to,  but  never  did  he  defend  one,  the  fallacy  of 
which  he  secretly  discerned. 

Writers  who,  of  late,  have  spoken  of  Wesley’s  want  of 
the  philosophic  faculty — a topic  easy  to  enlarge  upon  and 
illustrate — have,  as  if  by  w^ay  of  compensation,  allowed 


THE  TWO  WESLEYS. 


33 


him  the  praise  of  being  an  accomplished  logician.  And 
so  perhaps  he  was,  or  seemed  to  be,  while  dealing,  from 
the  moderator’s  chair,  with  scholastic  sophisms.  But  it  is 
inaccurate)  or  unphilosophical  to  make  the  logical  faculty 
— that  is  to  say,  an  expertness  in  technical  reasoning — the 
intellectual  contrary  of  the  philosophic  faculty.  In  that 
order  of  mind  to  which  Wesley  belonged,  it  is  the  irresisti- 
ble force,  or  one  might  say,  the  galvanic  instantaneous- 
ness of  the  intuitions,  which  forbids  and  excludes  the 
exercise  of  the  abstractive  and  analytic  power.  With 
him  the  grasp  of  what  he  thought  to  be  a truth,  was  so 
sudden,  and  so  spasmodically  firm,  as  ordinarily  to  pre- 
clude two  mental  processes  to  which  minds  of  a higher 
order  never  fail  to  submit  whatever  offers  itself  for  ac- 
ceptance as  a verbal  proposition  or  conclusion : — namely, 
first,  a ridding  the  terms,  so  far  as  may  be  possible,  of  the 
ambiguities  that  infest  language  ; and  secondly,  the  looking 
through  the  medium — the  verbal  proposition,  into  the  very 
midst  of  the  things  so  presented.  Wesley’s  habits  as  a 
logician  stood  him  in  some  stead  as  to  the  first  of  these 
processes  ; but  he  scarcely  seems  to  have  been  capable  of 
that  equipoise  of  the  mind  which  the  second  demands. 

At  the  time  when  Wesley  was  acting  as  moderator  in 
the  disputations  at  Lincoln  College,  there  was  no  philoso- 
phy abroad  in  the  world — there  was  no  thinking  that  was 
not  atheistical  in  its  tone  and  tendency,  and  the  whole 
energy  of  his  moral  nature  would  have  drawn  him  off 
from  any  commerce  with  it,  even  if  the  structure  of  his 
mind  had  allowed  him  to  tread  at  all  on  that  path.  But 
while  thus  officiating  in  a scholastic  chair,  that  preparation 
was  in  progress  which,  in  due  time,  was  to  issue  in  the 
peremptory  and  categorical  style  which  became  the 
marked  characteristic  of  the  Wesleyan  ministrations.  The 
fervor  of  Methodism,  carrying  upon  its  surface,  as  it  did, 
so  well  defined  a character  of  dialectic  precision,  might 
suggest  the  idea  of  a sharply-struck  medallion,  retaining 
its  nicest  features  while  molten  and  incandescent.  In  this 
feature  we  find  what  was  to  constitute  a main  distinction 


34 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


between  the  Wesleyan  and  the  Whitefieldite  Methodism  ? 
and  it  is  curious  to  note  the  fact,  that  while,  as  we  shall 
see,  the  former  exhibited  at  its  commencement  ostensible 
extravagances  and  distortions  which  in  a much  less  degree 
attached  to  the  latter,  it  was  Wesley’s  community  that 
crystalized  itself  in  geometric  figure ; while  Whitefield’s 
followers  passed  into  an  organized  condition  very  slowly 
and  very  imperfectly.  Wesley’s  Methodism  excelled  in 
external  order  ; Whitefield’s  in  a deep  and  more  true 
harmony.  But  what  we  have  just  now  to  do  with  is,  that 
training  in  verbal  precision,  which  was  to  give  life  and 
form,  both  to  the  theology  of  Wesley,  and  to  his  institu- 
tions. 


EARLY  STAGES  OF  WESLEY^S  RELIGIOUS  COURSE. 

At  Oxford,  Wesley’s  religious  feelings  went  through  a 
two-fold  transmutation,  which,  however,  brought  him  very 
little  way  forward  toward  the  position  whence  he  was 
to  exercise  his  ministry.  At  each  step  of  his  progress 
he  had  yielded,  after  some  resistance,  to  a force  partly 
logical,  and  partly  suasive ; and  his  so  yielding  might,  by 
a bystander,  have  been  anticipated  as  certain  to  ensue. 
Nevertheless,  his  conversion,  taking  place  as  it  did  in 
this  manner,  by  successive  vanquishmeMts,  gave  to  his 
own  religious  opinions,  and  so  afterward  to  Methodism,  a 
marked  character  of  abruptness  and  antagonism. 

The  conversion  of  several  of  his  companions  was  less, 
or  not  at  all,  interrupted  by  distinct  epochs : and  there- 
fore, while  it  was  less  logical,  it  was  of  a more  even  color, 
and  the  doctrinal  system  adopted  had  in  it  more  of  har- 
mony, and  less  of  paradox.  Wesleyan  Methodism,  so  far 
as  it  was  the  product  of  its  founder’s  mind,  and  the  repre- 
sentative of  his  individual  experience,  and  the  symbolic 
record  of  his  personal  religious  history,  came  forth — a 
cramped  Christianity^  nevertheless,  it  had  a recommenda- 
tion, most  important  in  whatever  is  to  control  the  mass  of 


WESLEY’S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  COURSE. 


85 


the  people — that  of  being  sharply  chiseled  on  every  side: 
it  was  shaped  and  bounded  with  intelligible  definitions. 
Thus  it  was,  that  those  extravagances  which  attended  its 
early  progress,  subsided  and  went  off  in  no  permanent  ill 
consequence,  for  every  thing,  after  a while,  collapsed 
within  the  limits  of  rules,  and  of  decisions  of  “ Conference.” 

We  have  said  that  at  Oxford  Wesley  passed  through 
two  stages  of  his  religious  course.  The  first  was  that 
which  brought  him  over  from  the  unbroken  hilarity  of  his 
natural  temper,  to  a fixed  seriousness,  and  a determination 
to  frame  his  course  of  life  under  the  sovereign  control  of 
religious  reasons  and  motives.  The  second  stage  was 
not  passed  through  until  he,  although  to  much  the  firmer 
temper  of  the  two,  and  although  the  master  mind,  had 
come  under  a spiritual  influence  of  a deeper  sort,  namely, 
that  of  his  brother  Charles,  and  his  praying  companions 
Charles  Wesley’s  soul  had  more  in  it  of  altitude  (pro- 
fundity and  elevation)  than  John’s,  and  it  is  always  seen 
that  force  and  energy  give  way  to,  and  receive  their  form 
from,  depth  and  intensity  of  feeling ; one  might  say,  in 
like  manner,  as  the  bony  structure  of  the  animal  frame 
takes  its  shape  from  the  softer  parts  and  the  fluids.  Let 
the  Wesleyan  hymn-book  be  examined,  and  the  relation 
between  the  minds  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley  will  be- 
come apparent,  nor  will  it  seem  strange  that  the  maker  of 
the  best  of  those  hymns  should  have  governed  the  robust 
spirit  of  the  founder  of  Methodism. 

Wesley  misunderstood  the  first  religious  book  that  much 
engaged  his  attention — the  De  Imitatione.  He  read  it  as 
if  it  had  been  intended  to  represent  the  Christian  life 
under  its  ordinary  conditions  ; and  so  it  was  that  his  good 
sense,  and  his  untamed  youthful  feelings,  prompted  him  to 
resent  that  abnegation  of  human  nature  which  the  writer 
throughout  supposes.  Wesley,  probably,  had  then  made 
little  acquaintance  with  the  mediaeval  monastic  and  ascetic 
system ; otherwise  he  would  have  perceived  that  the  De 
Imitatione  looks  no  further  than  the  cell,  and  that  the 
abstraction,  the  elevation,  the  purity  of  intention,  and  the 


36 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


reserve  which  it  speaks  of  and  recommends,  are  scarcely 
imitable  in  the  open  world ; or  are  so  only  in  a very  lim- 
ited sense.  The  breadth,  the  richness,  and  the  power 
of  Jeremy  Taylor,  at  once  vanquished  Wesley’s  mind, 
and  under  this  guidance  he  became,  without  reserve  or 
abatement,  the  religious  man.  How  far  this  solemnity, 
fervor,  or  intensity  of  soul  came  short  of  the  amplitude 
and  liberty  of  evangelical  piety,  can  not  be  precisely 
determined ; but  that  it  did  fall  far  short  of  that  standard 
is  certain ; at  least,  he  himself  thought  so,  for  it  was  not 
until  long  after  this  time  that  he  fixed  the  date  of  what  he 
termed  his  “ conversion.” 

But  using,  as  we  must,  the  liberty  to  speak  of  Wesley, 
as  from  broader  ground  than  that  of  his  own  views,  we 
must  first  reject  his  condemnation  of  himself,  as  “ not  a 
regenerate  man”  at  this  period ; for  if  not,  then  many  of 
those  whose  names  adorn  Church  history,  during  a full 
thousand  years,  were  not  Christians ; and  moreover,  if 
we  compare  him  as  a Christian,  at  a period  later  than  the 
date  he  assigns  to  his  conversion,  with  some  who,  since 
the  Reformation,  have  shone  as  lights  in  the  world,  we 
must  think  that  he,  less  clearly  than  many,  apprehended 
the  height  and  depth,  the  length  and  breadth,  of  the  Chris- 
tian scheme.  If  he  had  been  less  argumentative,  and  less 
categorical,  and  more  meditative,  he  would  have  set  Wes- 
leyan Methodism  upon  a broader  theological  basis.  We 
ask  leave,  then,  to  speak  of  John  Wesley  at  Oxford,  as  a 
Christian  man,  notwithstanding  his  own  protestations  to 
the  contrary ; and  the  very  same  liberty  we  use  in  think- 
ing of  the  matured  Wesleyan  theology  as  an  immature 
Christianity.  Wesley’s  first  impressions  at  Oxford  had 
made  him  a man  not  of  this  world ; his  second  placed 

m in  open  antagonism  to  the  levity,  the  indifference, 
and  the  impiety  which  on  all  sides  surrounded  him ; and 
if  this  impiety  had  been  less  extreme,  the  reaction  from 
it  would  have  been  less  vehement  and  decisive.  In  fact, 
this  reaction,  of  which  so  many  instances  present  them- 
selves in  religious  history,  went  on,  as  in  analogous  cases 


WESLEY’S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  COURSE. 


37 


it  usually  does,  beyond  the  stage  of  a stern  protest  against 
abounding  evils,  and  it  passed  into  what  is  so  little  thought 
of  by  fervently  religious  persons — religious  egotism. 

Wesley’s  state  of  mind,  and  his  habits  at  Oxford,  in- 
cluded much  intensity  of  feeling,  brought  to  a focus-spot 
upon  his  individual  welfare.  It  would  be  harsh  and  in- 
accurate to  designate  this  introverted  feeling  as  selfish- 
ness : or  if  we  were  to  do  so,  an  appeal  might  fairly  be 
made  to  the  self-denying  labors  and  charities  of  Wesley, 
and  of  others  who  may  come  under  the  same  description. 
But  there  may  be  much  egotism,  where  there  is  also 
much  self-denial  for  the  good  of  others.  That  which 
disperses  this  species  of  concentration,  and  which  gives 
full  play  to  a genuine  benevolence,  is  a better  understand- 
ing of  the  Gospel  than  Wesley  had  at  this  time,  or  until 
long  afterward,  attained. 

And  yet  we  might  say  that  Wesley’s  ascetic  notions 
and  practices,  and  the  dangerous  extent  to  which  he  went 
in  fasting,  were  less  indicative  of  his  imperfect  apprehen- 
sion of  Christianity,  than  was  the  pertinacious  opposition 
he  made  to  his  father’s  proposal,  that  he  should  take  steps 
for  being  appointed  as  his  successor  at  Epworth.  In  fact, 
his  earnest  piety  had  brought  out,  and  given  force  to  that 
self-determining  energy  which  was  to  qualify  him  for  his 
function  as  founder  and  ruler  of  a society ; but  at  this 
time  it  showed  itself  in  an  immovable  resolution  to  think 
only  of  his  own  (supposed)  spiritual  welfare;  and  in 
defending  himself  in  this  position,  he  stretched  sophistry 
to  the  utmost,  evading,  by  shallow  pleas,  at  once  the 
import  of  his  ordination  vow,  a clear  call  to  extensive 
usefulness,  and  (if  such  considerations  might  be  listened 
to)  the  duty  of  a son  toward  his  parents.  While  we 
mark  the  overruling  hand  which  had  otherwise  disposed 
Wesley’s  lot,  his  own  part  on  this  occasion — that  is  to 
say,  in  clinging  to  his  college  life  when  a populous  parish 
was  before  him — shows  clearly  enough  that  a willfulness 
still  held  its  mastery  in  his  mind,  which  years  of  severe 
discipline  were  needed  to  dispel ; yet  this  state  of  his 


38 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


mind  was  nothing  more  than  a stage  in  his  progress ; it 
was  not  a mood  in  which  a nature  so  noble  (Christian 
principles  apart)  could  have  remained  stationary.  Chris- 
tian principles,  with  a discipline  efficient  for  its  purpose, 
did  at  length  thoroughly  set  him  free  from  the  bondage 
of  every  restrictive  or  self-regarding  motive,  and  thence- 
forward as  large  and  warm  a philanthropy  as  a human 
bosom  has  ever  admitted  ruled  him  supremely. 


WESLEY’S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CONNECTIONS 

Except  so  far  as  it  formed  part  of  the  discipline  we 
have  just  spoken  of,  Wesley’s  adventure  in  Georgia  claims 
little  notice  in  relation  to  our  immediate  purpose.  His  voy- 
ages to  and  fro,  and  the  months  of  his  stay  in  the  colony, 
were  indeed  incidentally  important  in  bringing  him  with- 
in the  circle  of  the  Moravian  influence.  It  was  in  that 
circle  that  the  new  and  strange  idea  first  met  him  of  a 
Christianity  more  elevated  and  excellent  than  his  own. 
One  or  two  of  the  Moravian  ministers  were — and  he  felt 
it — far  advanced  in  knowledge  and  experience  beyond  his 
own  rate  of  attainment.  At  Oxford  he  had  found  himself 
stepping  forward  always  in  front  of  those  around  him. 
But  on  board  the  ship  in  which  he  crossed  the  Atlantic, 
and  afterward  in  the  colony,  he  met  with  men  who,  with- 
out assuming  a tone  of  arrogance  toward  him,  spoke  to 
him  as  to  a novice,  and  who,  in  the  power  of  truth,  brought 
his  conscience  to  a stand  by  questions  which,  while  he 
admitted  the  pertinence  of  them,  he  could  not  answer 
with  any  satisfaction  to  himself.  Thus  it  was  that  he 
returned  to  England  in  a state  of  spiritual  discomfort  and 
destitution.  He  had  been  stripped  of  that  overweening 
religiousness  upon  which,  as  its  basis,  his  asetic  egotism 
had  hitherto  rested.  He  rejoined  his  friends  in  a mood 
to  ask  and  receive  guidance,  rather  than  to  afford  it. 

At  a later  time,  and  when  his  judgment  in  spiritual 


WESLEY’S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CONNECTIONS.  39 

matters  had  ripened,  he  became  the  censor  of  the  Mora- 
vian community : — he'^ebuked  it,  and  in  the  end,  broke 
connection  with  the  body,  from  which,  however,  he  bor- 
rowed certain  rudiments  of  Methodistic  organization  ; but 
the  spirit  of  the  two  communities  was  widely — we  might 
say  essentially — different,  and  the  two  have  subserved  pur- 
poses wholly  dissimilar.  Within  the  Moravian  circle  the 
prevailing  force  is  centripetal;  within  the  Wesleyan  it  is 
centrifugal.  The  Church  of  the  Brethren  has  conserved 
within  its  small  inclosures  an  idea  of  what  was  imagined 
to  be  pristine  Christianity ; and  it  has  moored  itself,  here 
and  there,  in  sheltered  nooks  of  the  world,  amid  the  wide 
waters  of  general  impiety  or  formality;  but  no  such. tran- 
quil witness-bearing  to  primitive  principles  could  have 
satisfied  Wesley’s  evangelical  zeal ; and  the  Methodism 
which  he  framed  was  an  invasive  encampment  upon  the 
field  of  the  world  : it  never  was  in  his  view  or  purpose  a 
Church  : its  original  principles  and  practices  were  exclu- 
sive of  those  to  which  Moravianism  attached  the  highest 
importance.  This  is  an  instance,  and  such  present  them- 
selves on  all  sides,  in  which  some  accidental  and  unsub- 
stantial analogy,  or  some  merely  apparent  resemblance, 
has  been  hastily  taken  up  by  writers,  and  repeated  one 
after  another; — ‘‘Methodism — it  is  our  protestant  Jesuit- 
ism ;” — or,  “ it  is  our  English  Moravianism.”  Nothing,  in 
such  comparisons,  agrees  with  the  facts,  if  these  be  cor- 
rectly thought  of. 

Wesley’s  was  a mind  in  the  history  of  which  no  gradual 
transition-periods — no  seasons  during  which  the  under- 
standing and  the  moral  sentiments  should,  in  equipoised 
conjunction,  work  their  way  onward  from  one  position  to 
another — could  have  place.  Each  change  was  either  a 
leap  from  a precipice,  or  a being  thrown  with  violence 
from  one  standing  place  to  another ; and  the  very  next 
moment  after  he  had  regained  his  feet,  or  even  before 
lie  could  do  so,  he  turned  upon  those  whose  company 
he  had  thus  left,  and  assailed  them  with  eager,  yet  never 
with  bitter  upbraidings.  Such  are  the  characteristics, 


40 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


not  of  a mind  of  the  highest  order,  which  passes  from 
one  condition  to  another  harmoniously,  as  to  all  its  facul- 
ties; but  of  a spirit  of  energy,  destined  to  command  the 
multitude. 

Thus  it  was  that  Wesley,  whose  spiritual  confidence 
had  received  a death-wound  from  the  hand  of  the  Mora- 
vian brethren,  turned  so  sharply  upon  his  former  master — 
William  Law;  and  although  confessing  himself  to  be  yet 
only  treading  the  threshold  of  Christian  faith,  he  sternly 
rebukes  his  teacher,  as  a blind  leader  of  the  blind.  With 
Law’s  moonlight  Gospel  we  have  not  now  to  do  ; but  his 
modest  and  pertinent  reply  to  this  rude  assault  proves  at 
least,  that  this  spurned  teacher  had  much  the  advantage 
over  the  recusant  disciple,  on  the  ground  of  humility  and 
patience. 

The  elastic  force  of  his  mind  prevented  his  imbibing 
from  other  minds  any  more  of  a foreign  influence  than  he 
might,  at  the  moment,  be  in  a state  to  assimilate.  Thus 
it  was  that,  in  his  visit  to  Herrnhut — too  short  for  any 
purposes  of  intelligent  inquiry,  as  to  the  principles  and 
practices  of  the  society — he  took  up  from  Moravianism 
that  which  he  then  most  needed,  namely,  a clearer  appre- 
hension of  the  first  principle  of  the  Christian  life;  or,  to 
speak  technically,  he  learned  the  doctrine  of  Justification 
through  Faith.  It  does  not  appear  that  hitherto  his  no- 
tions on  that  subject  had  acquired  any  coherence,  or  had 
produced  the  fruits  of  peace  in  his  own  soul.  Just  so 
much  aid  as  he  then  required,  and  which  the  Moravian 
brethren  were  qualified  to  afford,  he  received  from  them. 
That  his  mind  did  not  undergo  more  transmutation  than 
this,  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  shortness  of  his  stay 
among  these  people,  and  by  that  restlessness  which  pre- 
vented his  seeing  or  understanding  what  was  beneath  the 
surface.  It  is  probable,  too,  that  his  very  limited  knowl- 
edge of  the  German  language  stood  much  in  his  way. 
With  the  Moravian  ministers,  or  with  some  of  them,  he 
conversed  in  Latin;  but  such  conversations,  in  which  a 
deliberate  and  formally  theological  style  would  prevail, 
y . ' ' i 


FIRST  METHODISTIC  PREACHING. 


41 


could  not  convey  to  him  what  he  might  have  gathered 
from  an  unfettered  and  promiscuous  colloquial  intercourse 
with  the  Herrnhut  community.  From  Georgia,  Wesley 
had  returned — we  might  say — dilapidated  ; from  Germany 
he  returned  edified;  or  at  least,  his  Christian  sentiments 
thenceforward  rested  upon  a better  foundation,  and  which 
was  afterward  to  be  built  upon : as  to  the  superstructure 
of  a settled  faith  and  peace,  it  did  not  yet  appear.  Unity 
of  purpose,  singleness  of  intention,  was  in  the  highest 
sense  his  characteristic;  but  simplicity,  in  a genuine  sense 
that  is  to  say,  oneness  of  the  mind  and  soul,  leading  to 
repose,  could  not  have  been  his  distinction.  Several  of 
his  friends,  who  were  far  his  inferiors  as  teachers,  or 
leaders,  or  as  rulers,  stood  in  advance  of  him,  as  to  the 
homogeneousness  of  their  religious  sentiments.  On  this 
ground  his  brother  Charles  was  always  his  superior ; and 
Whitefield  immeasurably  so. 


THE  FIRST  METHODISTIC  PREACHING. 

Wesley,  at  Whitefield’s  invitation,  and  following  the 
example  he  had  set,  commenced  his  public  ministry  as 
a field-preacher,  in  1739.  This  was  a course  utterly  re- 
pugnant to  his  most  cherished  notions  of  Church  order, 
as  well  as  to  every  instinct  of  his  nature ; yet  it  was  by 
field-preaching,  and  in  no  other  possible  way,  that  En- 
gland could  be  roused  from  its  spiritual  slumber,  or  Meth- 
odism spread  over  the  country,  and  rooted  where  it  spread. 
The  men  who  commenced  and  achieved  this  arduous 
service,  and  they  were  scholars  and  gentlemen,  displayed 
a courage  far  surpassing  that  which  carries  the  soldier 
through  the  hail-storm  of  the  battle  field.  Ten  thousand 
might  more  easily  be  found  who  would  confront  a battery, 
than  two  who,  with  the  sensitiveness  of  education  about 
them,  could  mount  a table  by  the  roadside,  give  out  a 
psalm,  and  gather  a mob. 


42 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


In  looking  down  upon  this  field-preaching  it  is  easy  to 
make  out  a list  of  inferior  motives  which  might  prompt 
to  such  a course,  and  which,  although  singly  they  must 
be  reckoned  wholly  inadequate  for  the  purpose,  yet  when 
heaped  together,  and  when  piled  up  in  the  periods  of  a 
swelling  paragraph,  may  seem  enough  to  resolve  the  diffi- 
culty presented  by  such  a line  of  conduct,  begun  and  per- 
severed in.  Let  those  who  so  reason,  and  who  so  write, 
themselves  make  an  experiment  for  effecting  great  things, 
on  a difficult  ground,  at  the  impulse  of  an  accumulation 
of  motives  singly  insufficient  for  the  purpose.  Such  rea- 
soners  can  know  little  of  human  nature ; and  they  must 
be  ignorant  of  the  laws  which  take  effect  upon  it,  when 
its  utmost  energies  are  put  in  strenuous  movement.  It  is 
a mistake  to  imagine  that  the  sum  of  small  motives  can 
ever  constitute,  or  be  equivalent  to,  a great  motive  ; on 
the  contrary,  such  an  accumulation  produces,  not  concen- 
tration, but  distraction,  vacillation,  and  infirmity  of  pur- 
i pose.  Arduous  achievements  demand  powerful  motives : 
this,  indeed,  is  something  like  a truism  ; but  let  it  be  added 
that  powerful  motives  are  simple  in  their  structure,  and 
they  love  to  have  the  whole  man  to  themselves. 

As  a point  of  philosophy,  nothing  is  gained  by  the  frigid 
flippancy  of  attaching  to  the  names  of  men  who  have 
achieved  arduous  conquests  in  a long  course  of  perse- 
vering activity,  the  designation — “ Enthusiasts  for  how 
does  this  phrase  help  us  forward  ? Not  at  all.  Unless  a 
serviceable  word  is  to  lose  its  significancy,  and  therefore, 
to  drop  out  of  its  place  in  the  dictionary,  this  term  must 
be  held  to  convey  the  idea  of  that  which  is  spurious,  un- 
real, and  which,  as  compared  with  the  reality  it  counter- 
feits, is  inefficient,  nugatory,  and  inconstant.  The  word 
Enthusiasm,  undoubtedly,  is  one  of  a class  of  terms  which 
has  no  meaning  apart  from  its  correlative.  When  there- 
fore, men  whose  very  aspect,  and  whose  whole  course  of 
life,  indicates  that  there  is  in  them  the  highest  rate  of  con- 
stitutional energy  and  courage,  pass  before  us,  and  we 
see  them  achieving  great  things,  and  bearing  up,  undis 


THE  FIRST  METHODISTIC  PREACHING. 


43 


mayed,  amid  discoui-agements,  perils,  and  reproaches — 
when  (to  condescend  to  the  cant  of  a philosophic  style) 
all  the  “ phenomena” '"sho'w  the  presence  of  motives  that 
must  be  true  in  human  nature,  and  true  toward  human 
nature,  and  toward  the  moral  system — when,  with  facts 
such  as  these  in  view,  we  think  the  word  enthusiast’ap- 
propriate,  as  applied  to  the  principal  actors,  we  either 
write  English  miserably,  or  we  think  confusedly,  or  we 
ourselves — and  this  is  the  most  likely  supposition — are 
staggering  in  front  of  facts  which  no  sympathy  in  our 
own  bosoms  enables  us  to  comprehend. 

Perplexities  of  this  sort  which  so  much  embarrass  a 
certain  class  of  writers  whose  good-nature  would  impel 
them  to  deal  kindly  with  useful  “madmen,”  and  who 
would  fain  be  thought  masters  of  philosophic  equanimity, 
are  much  enhanced  by  the  occurrence  of  those  excesses, 
or  of  those  inexplicable  agitations  which  have  so  often 
run  alongside  of  great  religious  movements.  “ May  we 
not,”  say  they,  “ fairly  call  those  men  Enthusiasts  who, 
whatever  their  virtues  may  have  been,  stand  before  us 
implicated  in  disorders  that  are  frightful  to  think  of?” 

So  it  may  appear ; yet  leave  must  be  taken  to  apply  a 
stricter  analysis  to  the  facts. 

It  is  a circumstance  worthy  to  be  noted  that  although  ^ 

Whitefield’s  oratory  was  of  a far  more  moving  sort  than 
that  of  Wesley,  bodily  agitations  and  outwardly  express-  •vuwl,. 
ed  agonies  were  less  frequently  excited  in  his  audiences 
than  in  those  of  his  friend.  In  fact,  it  was  seldom  except 
when  Whitefield  followed  immediately  upon  Wesley’s 
track,  that  any  of  these  disturbances  took  place,  beyond 
such  as  might  arise  from  the  copious  weeping  of  a large 
proportion  of  the  congregated  thousands  that  listened 
to  him.  When  they  did  occur  in  his  presence,  Whitefield 
stood  in  doubt  as  to  the  source  to  which  they  should  be 
attributed.  He  could  see  in  them  no  indubitable  indica- 
tions of  the  hand  of  God.  He  looked  for  such  fruits  of 
his  preaching  as  are  of  a less  questionable  kind.  It  may 
be  thought,  and  with  some  reason,  that  it  was  Wesley’s 


"Wi/  1 a-V>. 


• ■ X -A' 

• : vXU-t.  . W "lx...  'A.'  Vv,  V 


44 


FOUNDERS  OP  METHODISM. 


too  ready  acceptance  of  these  supposed  proofs  of  the 
presence  of  God,  that  tended  to  produce,  and  to  aggra- 
vate them.  But  this  natural  explication  of  the  difference 
is  not  sufficient.  The  tone  and  quality  of  the  popular 
addresses  of  the  two  preachers  has  also  to  be  taken  into 
the  account;  for  while  Wesley— in  his  earlier  years 
especially— made  a vehement  appeal  to  the  instantaneous 
impressions  of  his  hearers,  thus  throwing  inward  upon 
the  imagination  and  the  nervous  system  the  whole  amount 
of  emotion  which  he  had  raised,  Whitefield  worked  upon 
the  human  mind  in  a manner  that  is  more  in  harmony 
with  its  laws ; that  is  to  say,  he  I’oused  genuine  feelings 
to  a high  pitch  by  vividly  presenting  to  the  mind  the 
^ proper  external  objects  of  such  feelings,  and  by  sustain- 
ing  the  outward  tendency  of  these  feelings  toward  their 
true  objects.  Those  paroxysms  of  feeling  which  agitate 
the  body,  take  place  in  consequence  of  some  sudden  intro- 
verted action  and  shock  produced  among  them. 

There  is,  however,  something  further,  calling  for  in- 
quiry on  this  ground,  and  the  problem  may  be  looked  at 
quite  fearlessly ; for  the  danger,  if  there  be  any,  lurks 
among  mistaken  apprehensions  of  danger. 

There  is  nothing  that  should  tempt  one  to  recount 
them,  in  the  extant  narrations  of  those  appalling  scenes 
that  were  of  frequent  occurrence  when  Wesley  preached. 
They  became,  however,  less  and  less  frequent  in  the  pro- 
gress of  Methodism,  and  he  himself  less  inclined  to  re- 
gard them  with  favor.  But  while  these  disorders  were 
at  their  height,  they  resembled,  in  some  of  their  features, 
the  demoniacal  possessions  mentioned  in  the  Gospel  his- 
tory. The  bodily  agitations  were  perhaps  as  extreme  in 
the  one  class  of  instances  as  in  the  other ; nevertheless 
there  is  no  real  analogy  between  the  two.  The  demoni- 
acs (clearly  distinguishable  from  lunatics)  were  found  in 
this  state  by  Christ  where  he  went  preaching : — they  did 
not  become  such  while  listening  to  him.  In  no  one  instance 
is  It  said  that  frenzy  seized  upon  any  among  the  thousands 
who  pressed  around  him,  eager  to  catch  his  words.  In 


FIRST  METHODISTIC  PREACHING. 


45 


no  one  instance,  recorded  in  the  Gospels  or  Acts,  did 
demoniacal  possession,  or  any  bodily  agitations  resembling 
it,  come  on  as  the  initial  stage  of  conversion.  Some,  in- 
deed, out  of  whom  demons  had  been  cast,  gratefully  ac- 
cepted so  great  a deliverance  with  a devout  consciousness 
of  whence  it  came  ; and  afterward  they  followed  their 
Divine  Benefactor ; — and  so  did  the  leper,  the  blind,  the 
lame,  when  ‘‘  healed.”  But  there  was  no  recognized  de- 
pendency, no  sequency  of  a spiritual  renovation,  as  the 
issue  of  demoniacal  possession ; — far  from  it : and  yet, 
when  this  apparent  analogy  has  been  dismissed  as  unreal, 
there  remains  not  another  word  in  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament  (or  only  one,  and  that  not  pertinent — 
1 Cor.  xiv.  25)  which  should  compel  us  to  pay  the  least 
regard  to  the  Wesleyan  agitations,  as  if  they  implicated, 
in  any  way,  Christianity  itself : they  are  to  be  looked  at 
as  facts  sundered  from  all  real  relationship  to  those  truths 
with  which  they  stand  in  this  temporary  and  accidental 
juxtaposition. 

Thus  far,  then,  all  is  secure ; Christianity  is  in  no  way 
entangled  in  questions  concerning  the  occult  cause,  or 
causes,  of  the  still  unexplained  phenomena  that  attended 
the  Wesleyan  preaching.  Even  Methodism  itself  stands 
clear  of  this  difficulty  ; for  it  held  on  its  course,  and 
wrought  its  beneficial  effects,  after  these  disorders  had 
subsided,  or  where  they  did  not  occur.  Yet,  in  some  de- 
gree, our  opinion  of  Wesley  himself  does  take  a color 
from  this  source,  inasmuch  as  he  failed  to  extricate  him- 
self entirely  from  the  difficulties  thence  arising ; and  so  it 
was  that  he  left  many  of  his  thoughtful  and  more  sober- 
minded  followers  painfully  struggling  with  a very  serious 
doubt — a ‘‘  temptation,”  as  they  would  call  it,  when — with 
these  bodily  agonies  taking  place  in  their  presence,  they 
knew  not  whether  they  should  attribute  what  they  saw  to 
the  finger  of  God,  or  charge  it,  as  a work  of  confusion, 
upon  the  “father  of  lies.” 

In  the  present  state  of  what,  by  indulgence,  may  be 
called  intellectual  or  psychological  science  (no  such 


46 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


science  being,  in  fact,  in  existence)  some  room  may  be 
found  for  suppositions  which  a few  years  ago  would  have 
been  scouted  as  chimerical ; for  there  is  now  observable 
among  intelligent  persons  an  unwillingness  to  believe  too 
little,  as,  years  ago,  there  was  a nervous  dread  of  be- 
lieving too  much.  The  progress  of  the  physical  sciences 
has  tended  to  bring  about  this  change,  by  its  often  recur- 
rent and  startling  discoveries.  “ What  is  there,”  we  are 
tempted  to  ask,  “that  may  not  turn  out  to  be  true?”  In 
the  same  direction  minds,  not  the  credulous  only,  but  the 
incredulous,  have  been  led  on  toward  an  enlarged  belief 
on  that  ground  where  psychological  empirics  have  en- 
camped themselves ; and  where  they  wait  until  a true 
philosophy  shall  drive  them  off,  with  its  regular  in- 
closures. In  a word,  it  is  now  felt,  more  than  heretofore, 
that  human  nature  occupies  a position  bordering  upon  a 
world,  or  a region,  unknown  and  unexplored,  but  with 
which  it  has  certain  obscure  relationships,  and  which, 
hitherto,  have  been  little  regarded. 

This  tacit  and  general  recognition  of  *an  unknown 
neighboring  system,  may  be  held  to  bear  in  some  manner 
upon  our  present  subject.  That  which  we  need  in  re- 
lation to  inexplicable  occurrences,  such  as  those  that  are 
now  in  view,  is  firsts  to  be  relieved  from  the  necessity, 
real  or  imagined,  of  either  doing  violence  to  the  establish- 
ed laws  of  evidence,  or  of  resorting  to  a flippant  skepti- 
cism, as  the  only  means  of  dismissing  a troublesome  nar- 
ration of  alleged  facts.  We  next  need  an  alternative  sup- 
position, serving  to  preserve  the  deep  realities  of  spiritual 
religion  from  all  implication  with  what  is  merely  physical 
or  incidental.  Now  for  securing  both  these  ends,  nothing 
more  is  requisite  than  that  we  keep  in  view  certain  nega- 
tive principles,  such  as  these : — Firsts  That,  as  the  laws 
of  sentient  life  are  at  present  almost  wholly  unknown — 
this  ignorance  having  of  late  glared  upon  us  in  an  un- 
wonted manner — there  is  reason  in  the  modesty  which 
gives  a hearing  to  the  most  extraordinary  recitals,  in  sus- 
pended faith,  as  to  the  causes  of  what  has  occurred. 


FIRST  METHODISTIC  PREACHING. 


47 


Such  and  such  demonstrations  of  occult  powers  in  human 
nature  are  to  be  recorded,  and  are  to  be  thought  of,  until 
materials  more  abundant  shall  have  been  accumulated 
which  may  render  them  explicable. 

Another  negative  principle  may  undoubtedly  be  held, 
and  may  safely  be  resorted  to,  when  facts  that  are  thus 
inexplicable  claim  to  be  listened  to.  It  is  this — That  no 
analogy  of  the  visible  universe  contradicts  the  suppo- 
sition, which  several  such  analogies  suggest,  namely,  of 
the  vicinity  of  orders  of  being,  infringing,  on  rare  occa- 
sions, yet  with  violence  when  they  do,  upon  the  human 
system,  and  which  are  fenced  off  from  it  by  the  ordinary 
conditions  of  their  existence.  Be  it  so,  that  we  thus  live 
in  a more  crowded  and  busy  neighborhood  than  we  have 
been  used  to  suppose,  or  than  we  know  how  to  include  in 
a census : no  belief  of  this  sort  will,  in  a sound  mind,  any 
way  disturb  its  notions  of  moral  principles,  or  will  make 
other  than  it  is  our  prime  relationship  to  the  Divine  gov- 
ernment. To  entertain  such  a belief,  or  to  reject  it  as 
gratuitous,  is  a point  of  perfect  indifference,  religiously. 
Nothing,  on  this  ground,  is  deeply  important,  except  our 
well  observing  always  the  distinction  between  what  is 
physical,  and  what  is  moral  and  spiritual. 

In  the  present  instance  the  writer  would  not  expend  half 
a page  upon  the  endeavor  to  recommend,  as  better  than  a 
mere  conjecture,  any  hypothesis  he  might  be  inclined  to 
admit  in  explication  of  the  Methodistic  bodily  paroxysms. 
Let  us  make  our  way  into  Mr.  Berridge’s  church  at 
Everton.  It  is  as  when  the  juniors  of  a hive  have  been 
driven  forth  in  June,  and  are  clustering  around  their 
queen  upon  a willow  bough  ; so  is  this  church  packed 
and  piled  with  human  beings  : — pews,  aisles,  ledges,  pulpit 
stairs,  pulpit  rails,  and  sounding  board ! The  vicar  one 
thinks  must  be  crushed  and  stifled,  as  he  pants  for  breath 
at  the  core  of  this  dense  living  mass.  Paintings  and  fits 
will  no  doubt  occur  ; and  as  the  preacher,  in  solemn 
tones,  touches  upon  themes  which  are  felt  by  all,  or  most 
present,  to  be  real,  and  of  immeasurable  moment,  it  is 


■V 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


only  natural  that  the  feelings  of  such  a crowd,  thus 
wrought  upon  by  means  of  statements  and  representations 
admitted  to  be  true,  should  burst  over  the  limits  of  cus- 
tomary restraint,  and  that  sighing  and  weeping  aloud — 
especially  after  the  first  reserves  of  diffidence  have  given 
way — should  become  general,  and  that  the  heavings  of 
compunction  should,  each  moment,  reach  a higher  and  a 
higher  pitch.  Thus  far  nothing  presents  itself  in  this 
scene  which  is  not  readily  explicable.  Those  objects  of 
thought  which,  if  they  were  duly  dwelt  upon,  might  well 
shake  the  stoutest  heart,  and  which,  if  vividly  presented 
and  profoundly  believed,  might  agitate  the  dullest  congre- 
gation, are  now  exerting  their  unabated  force — not  upon 
a congregation,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  but 
upon  a living  condensation  of  souls  and  bodies. 

We  ought  not  peremptorily  to  say  within  what  limits, 
under  circumstances  such  as  these,  bodily  agitations, 
which  may  easily  be  accounted  for,  would  be  confined  ; 
but,  in  some  instances,  they  pass  quite  beyond  any  limits 
which  it  might  seem  possible  to  allow  as  proper  to  them. 
Robust  men,  hale  and  insensitive,  fall  in  an  instant,  as  if 
thunderstruck,  upon  the  ground,  where  they  roll,  plunge, 
stamp,  kick,  and  howl,  as  if  molten  brass  had  been  poured 
into  their  stomachs  ! The  face  is  swollen  and  livid,  or  it 
glows  with  crimson ! This  access  of  mortal  agonies 
lasts,  perhaps,  some  hours,  and  is  then,  and  in  a moment, 
succeeded  by  a calm  or  ecstatic  joy.  The  permanent  re- 
sult is,  in  some  cases,  good  and  happy  ; in  other  cases,  the 
contrary : these  instances,  moreover,  are  always  inter- 
mingled with  cases  of  mere  folly  and  fraud. 

Now,  in  contemplating  this  scene  of  confusion,  after  we 
have  set  off  from  it  the  utmost  amount  of  what  is  fairly 
attributable  to  known  causes,  there  will  remain  more  than 
a little  to  which  such  causes  afford  no  admissible  explica- 
tion. How,  then,  are  we  to  dispose  of  them  ? Perhaps 
not  at  all  to  our  satisfaction ; except  so  far  as  this,  that 
they  serve  to  render  so  much  the  more  unambiguous  the 
distinction  between  themselves,  and  those  genuine  affec- 


WESLEY’S  SEPARATE  COURSE. 


49 


tions  which  the  apostolic  writers  describe  and  exemplify. 
Among  the  inspired  writers  let  those  of  them  who  were 
uneducated  be  brought  forward  as  witnesses  in  support 
of  this  conclusion — that  the  most  vivid  affections  of  which 
our  nature  is  capable,  when  directed  toward  objects 
purely  spiritual,  may  take  their  hold  of  the  human  heart, 
and  may  fill  it — apart  from  any  bodily  demonstrations  or 
agonies.  Christianity  when  proclaimed,  in  its  substance, 
severs  itself  easily  from  whatever  is  not  moral  and  spirit- 
ual in  the  results  of  preaching  such  as  that  of  the  Method- 
ists. Christianity  rescues  its  own  out  of  these  tumultuous 
assemblages ; and  then,  content  with  its  indisputable 
triumphs,  it  leaves  the  ambiguous  residuum  in  the  hands 
of  scoffers,  or  of  philosophers,  to  be  dealt  with  as  thev 
please,  or  can. 


WESLEY’S  SEPARATION  FROM  WHITEEIELD. 

The  harmony  of  sacred  truth,  when  at  length  it  shall 
bless  the  world,  will  not  be  seen  arising  from  the  bosom 
of  a tempest-tossed  Church.  The  Reformation  yielded 
no  such  fruit,  and  with  less  reason  could  it  have  been 
looked  for  as  likely  to  spring  from  among  the  excitements 
of  Methodism.  Wesley  and  Whitefield  were  destined 
to  bear  testimony,  independently  of  each  other,  to  great 
but  dislocated  principles.  Each  seized  his  doctrine,  and 
well  maintained  it,  so  long  as  he  dealt  with  it  in  its  form 
as  a positive  truth : but  each  failed,  and  Wesley  the 
most  glaringly,  when  he  used  this  doctrine  as  a weapon 
wherewith  to  demolish  that  of  his  friend  and  antagonist. 
Neither  of  them  had  the  leisure,  or  the  furniture,  or  the 
grasp  of  mind,  that  might  have  brought  them  to  an  under- 
standing as  theologians  ; and  Wesley,  by  the  structure  of 
his  mind,  wanted  that  equipoise  of  the  faculties  which  the 
bringing  about  such  an  agreement  would  demand. 

The  rupture  between  them  was  inevitable;  and,  on 
C 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


bO 

the  whole,  it  has  had  a beneficial  result.  Neither  Wes- 
ley’s theology,  walled  up  as  it  was  to  heaven,  nor  White- 
field’s,  unwalled  and  open  to  the  tread  of  the  unclean  and 
the  lawless,  could  have  stood,  or  been  tolerable  by  itself. 

In  times  of  coolness  and  indifference  Arminians  and 
Calvinists  find  it  easy  to  be  cheaply  wise,  and  may  agree 
to  hold  their  differences  in  abeyance : they  pass  the  time 
of  their  hybernation  peacefully  enough  in  adjoining  dens. 
But  it  can  not  be  so  with  men  who,  in  solemn  earnestness, 
believe  their  belief,  and  who  are  called  out  to  utter  their 
convictions  in  terms  decisive,  and  intelligible  to  the  mul- 
titude. Wesley  and  Whitefield  loved  each  other;  but  it 
was  not  desirable,  indeed  it  was  not  possible,  that  they 
should  continue  to  address,  in  turn,  the  same  congrega- 
tions ; for  such  congregations  would  have  been  kept  in 
the  pitiable  condition  of  a ship,  thrown  on  its  beam  ends, 
larboard  and  starboard,  by  hurricanes  driving  alternately 
east  and  west. 

Whitefield,  not  indeed  as  a theologian,  but  by  the 
genuineness  and  simplicity  of  his  Christian  instincts,  and 
by  the  more  entire  harmony  of  his  religious  affections,  had 
advanced  beyond  his  friend’s  position,  and  had  gained  a 
wider  and  more  elevated  ground.  As  well  attempt  to 
stitch  his  arms  down  to  his  sides  while  preaching,  as  to 
shackle  him  with  logic  when,  with  uplifted  hands  and  a 
true  heart,  he  made  known  to  the  thousands  around  him 
the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.”  Evils  and  abuses, 
he  knew  not  what  or  how  many,  might  come  to  claim 
affinity  with  his  ample  Gospel ; nevertheless,  he  must 
preach  it,  at  all  risks. 

Wesley  foresaw  these  evils ; and,  indeed,  they  had 
already  met  him  on  his  ministerial  course,  in  their  most 
revolting  forms ; but  he  was  frightened  beyond  the  occa- 
sion, and  in  his  terror  he  lost  sight  of  truths  w^hich  seem- 
ed so  beset  with  abuses.  Besides,  in  adhering  to  his 
habit  of  reasoning,  rather  than  of  thinking,  and  by  the 
irresistible  affinity  of  his  mind  with  categorical  positions, 
Wesley  had  caught  hold  of  the  paradox  of  “ Perfection,” 


WESLEY’S  SEPARATE  COURSE. 


51 


which,  in  the  form  in  which  at  first  he  announced  and  de- 
fined  it,  must  meet  its  contradiction  in  the  depth  of  every 
ingenuous  bosom.  The  somewhat  harsh  pertinacity  with 
which  he  maintained  this  article,  combining  it  with  the 
assertion  of  a consciously  instantaneous  passing  from 
death  unto  life,  made  it  necessary  that  he  should  stand 
alone  as  the  teacher  and  chief  of  a community  that  was 
willing  to  receive  law  from  his  lips.  It  was  not  likely 
that  he  should  find  a thoughtful  colleague,  who  would 
move  on  by  his  side,  while  he  so  rigidly  insisted  upon  a 
doctrine  which  assimilates  itself  in  no  mind  that  is  not 
more  or  less  sophisticated.  There  are  mysteries  which 
rightly  ordered  minds  accept,  knowing  well  that  the  sub- 
jects embraced  in  them  are  beyond  the  grasp  and  range 
of  the  human  faculties.  Transubstantiation  is  a mystery 
which  contradicts  only  our  senses ; and  these  perhaps 
may  fail  us ; but  the  doctrine  of  perfection,  as  at  first 
taught  by  Wesley,  contradicts  that  with  which  every 
man  has  the  most  intimate  and  infallible  acquaintance, 
namely,  his  individual  consciousness : it  is  a mystery 
lodged  on  the  very  pathway  between  a man’s  mind  and 
heart. 

Yet  the  difference  concerning  the  Election  of  Grace” 
necessitated,  in  a still  more  peremptory  manner,  the  sep- 
aration of  the  two  friends.  It  was  not  Whitefield’s  fault 
that,  in  giving  expression  to  his  belief  concerning  the  sov- 
ereignty of  Him  from  whom  every  good  gift  comes,  he 
should  employ  the  only  terms  and  phrases  in  which  this 
belief  had,  by  divines  and  controvertists,  been  conveyed. 
This  phraseology  need  not  have  been  rejected  because  it 
was  anthropomorphic — for  the  language  of  theology  can 
in  no  way  be  relieved  from  this  disadvantange  ; or  it 
need  not,  if  its  anthropomorphism  had  not  been  made  to 
sustain  a superstructure  of  crude  sophism,  and  of  crazy 
metaphysics.  Calvinism  is  quarreled  with,  by  serious 
persons,  not  because  it  is  not  scriptural  and  philosoph- 
ical ; but  because  it  has  been  conveyed  in  a medium  that 
has  been  rendered  insufferable  by  the  bad  uses  to  which 


52 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


it  has  been  applied.  Yet  Whitefield,  taking  up,  by  the 
necessity  of  the  case,  the  Genevan  dialect,  sweetened 
it  by  passing  it  through  the  warm  charities  of  his  own 
loving  heart.  We  must  not  then  blame  him  when,  in 
speaking  of  things  heavenly,  he  uses  a language  which 
is  not  heavenly,  but  which  yet  he  utters  in  tones  of 
evangelic  charity.  He  was  no  philosopher  that  he  might 
have  framed  for  himself  a less  exceptionable  style ; he 
was  not  a theologian,  not  a proficient  in  biblical  inter- 
pretation, so  as  that  he  might  have  brought  these  truths 
into  a nearer  relationship  to  the  very  style  of  the  Inspired 
Writers.  He  spoke  of  the  ‘‘Election  of  Grace”  in  the 
only  manner  that  to  him  was  practicable.  May  it  be 
hoped  that  the  Whitefield  of  the  coming  age  will  have 
at  his  command  a language — not  theological,  not  meta- 
physical, not  encrusted  with  logic ; — but  new-born  from 
the  hearts  of  men  who  will  utter  truth  before  they  have 
learned  to  define  it  in  controversy  ! 

But  then,  in  all  fairness,  if  so  much  indulgence  as  this 
is  granted  to  Whitefield,  while  he  preaches  the  Gospel — 
Calvinistically,  as  much,  also,  should  be  accorded  to  Wes- 
ley, while  he  protests,  against  what  he  thought  the  An- 
tinomian  abuse  of  it,  in  the  ill-compacted  dialect  of  Armi- 
nianism.  He  may  claim  such  an  indulgence  with  the 
more  reason  because,  impelled  as  he  was  by  a stern  re- 
gard to  the  great  principles  of  Christian  purity — which  he 
saw  to  be  endangered — so  to  protest,  he  was  not  thinker^ 
not  philosopher  enough  to  perceive  that  his  protest,  though 
quite  good  and  solid  as  related  to  Antinomian  enormities, 
was  only  a film,  or  an  evasion,  as  it  stood  related  to 
Calvinistic  truths.  Every  thing  for  which  a Calvinist — 
not  of  fanatical  temper — would  contend,  is  embraced 
within  the  compass  of  Wesley’s  own  preaching  lan- 
guage, and  might  indubitably  be  thence  inferred. 

Wesley  rejected,  in  terms,  the  “ Election  of  Grace,”  on 
account  of  its  alliance — inseparable  as  he  supposed,  with 
Reprobation ; but  in  so  doing  he  fought  a wordy  phan- 
tom ; and  while  thus  engaged  he  lost  sight  of  the  reality 


WESLEY’S  SEPARATE  COURSE. 


53 


— the  unsolved  and  insoluble  mystery  of  the  spiritual 
condition  of  the  human  family.  No  Calvinist  insisted 
with  more  force  or  point  than  he  did  upon  the  facts  of 
this  awful  condition ; and  no  one  availed  himself  in  more 
solemn  terms  of  the  incentives  thence  arising,  for  urging 
men  to  repentance.  He  went  forth  among  the  impeni- 
tent million  as  he  ought  to  go ; — not  as  if,  in  slender 
tortuous  tones,  he  would  beg  a hearing,  that  he  might  ex- 
cuse, evade,  or  unriddle  the  mystery  of  the  wide-spread 
ruin ; but  as  the  Apostles  went — assuming,  without  doubt 
or  abatement,  its  reality,  and  then  laboring  to  rescue 
men,  one  by  one,  from  its  fatal  bearing  upon  their  im- 
mortal destiny.  No  effective  assault  has  ever  been  made 
upon  the  consciences  of  men,  whether  educated  or  un- 
educated, on  any  other  ground  than  this.  The  unmitiga- 
ted fact  which  Reprobation  assumes,  Wesley  also  as- 
sumed. The  exact  difference  between  himself  and  the 
Reprobationists  was  this — that  they  put  an  anthropomor- 
phic and  unwarrantable  interpretation  upon  the  fact,  and 
an  interpretation  which  was  sure  to  be  blasphemously 
rendered  by  fanatics.  He,  with  a genuine  zeal  for  the 
honor  of  God,  spreads  over  it  a thin  sophism,  also  an- 
thropomorphic. 

Fiery  arrows  they  were,  indeed,  which  his  sinewy  arm 
aimed  at  the  hearts  of  men  from  the  pulpit ; yet  each 
arrow  was  fledged,  if  not  with  Reprobation,  with  that 
which  is  not  much  rather  to  be  chosen  than  itself.  Wes- 
ley’s preaching,  so  far  as  it  was  effective  for  dispersing 
the  infatuations  of  the  human  mind,  although  it  was  clear 
of  Calvinistic  fanaticism  and  bad  taste,  carried  with  it, 
in  the  view  of  thoughtful  men,  the  undiminished  load  of 
its  difficulties.  Lighten  this  load  at  all,  and  Methodism 
could  not  have  spread,  and  would  not  have  been. 

And  yet  there  was  nothing  disingenuous  in  Wesley’s 
conduct  in  this  behalf;  for,  verily  he  believed  that  that 
ill-judged  burst  of  rhetoric,  in  w^hich  he  himself  borders 
so  near  upon  blasphemy,  and  apostrophizes  ‘‘the  Devil,” 
was  as  sound  in  theology,  as,  in  fact,  it  was  shallow  and 


54 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


unseemly.  In  this,  and  in  many  other  similar  instances, 
we  easily  save  his  reputation,  as  a thoroughly  honest 
disputant,  by  alleging  his  entire  want  of  the  deep  reflec- 
tive or  analytic  faculty.  Almost  a particle  of  that  power 
of  mind  which  looks  through  wordy  propositions  and 
examines  the  substance  beneath,  would  have  sufliced  for 
enabling  him  to  embrace  that  rudiment  of  the  Christian 
system  which  the  Seventeenth  of  the  articles  he  had 
subscribed  so  wisely  embodies.  On  this  ground,  if  he 
could  have  taken  it,  Wesley  might  have  repelled  Antino- 
mianism  more  successfully  than  he  did  ; and  might  have 
placed  the  Wesleyan  theology  also  on  a broader  and  less 
precarious  basis.  This  was  not  to  be ; for  the  time  was 
not  come,  nor  is  yet  come,  when  the  harmony  of  truth 
can  exist  otherwise  than  as  an  abstraction  painfully  dis- 
entangled from  antagonist  dogmas. 


LAY  PREACHING,  AND  THE  LAY  PREACHERS. 

Rid  at  length  of  his  friend,  and  standing  clear,  as  he 
believed,  of  all  implication  with  Calvinistic  election  and 
reprobation,  and  yet,  as  a preacher,  strong,  as  well  in  the 
truths  which  he  misunderstood,  as  in  those  which  he  pro- 
claimed, Wesley  took  his  position  upon  the  field  of  the 
world — the  friend  of  man,  the  enemy  of  nothing  but  sin. 
On  this  ground  he  has  a claim  to  be  regarded  with  rev- 
erent affection  and  admiration,  which  is  as  valid  as  that  of 
any  of  the  worthies  to  whom  a place  has  been  assigned 
among  the  benefactors  of  mankind.  The  very  inconsis- 
tencies that  mark  his  progress  (when  properly  consid- 
ered) do  but  enhance  his  demand  upon  our  sympathies. 
If,  indeed,  as  heartless  writers  have  affirmed,  he  had 
been  nothing  better  than  an  ambitious  plotter — the  builder 
of  a house  in  which  he  should  rule  and  be  worshiped — 
no  such  inconsistencies  would  ever  have  come  to  the  sur- 
face, or  would  for  a moment  have  made  him  halt  on  his 


LAY  PREACHING  AND  LAY  PREACHERS. 


55 


path.  Unquestionably  it  was  from  the  want  of  a plot  at 
the  beginning,  and  from  the  lack  of  ambition  as  he  went 
on,  that  he  found  himself  compelled  to  yield,  once  and 
again,  to  the  instances  of  some  who  seem  to  have  been 
deficient  in  neither. 

As  a field-preacher,  the  courage,  the  self-possession,  the 
temper,  and  the  tact  (and  the  same  praise  is  due  to  his 
brother)  which  he  displayed,  places  Wesley  in  a position 
inferior  to  none  with  whom  it  would  be  reasonable  to 
compare  him.  After  setting  off  from  the  account  his  con- 
stitutional intrepidity,  his  moral  courage  was  that  which 
is  characteristic  of  a perfect  benevolence,  and  which,  in 
the  height  of  danger,  thinks  only  of  the  rescue  of  its  ob- 
jects. When  encountering  the  ruffianism  of  mobs  and  of 
magistrates,  he  showed  a firmness  as  well  as  a guileless 
skill,  which,  if  the  martyr’s  praise  might  admit  of  such 
an  adjunct,  was  graced  with  the  dignity  and  courtesy  of 
the  gentleman.  In  looking  at  the  two  brothers,  while 
they  are  thus  quietly  bearing  themselves  in  the  midst  of  a 
furious  rabble,  a wish  is  generated,  that  they  had  been 
used  to  read  their  Bibles  always  in  as  calm  a mood  as 
that  in  which  they  pushed  their  way  among  wolves  and 
tigers. 

In  making  their  assault  upon  the  obtuse  moral  sense  of 
men,  the  first  Methodists  enjoyed,  and  they  well  knew 
how  to  use  it,  an  advantage  of  position  which  perhaps 
has  not  been  duly  considered.  Wesley’s  own  style  of 
pulpit  oratory  was,  in  a remarkable  degree,  logically  di- 
rect and  conclusive : each  blow  was  a blow  straightfor- 
ward, and  was  such  as  could  scarcely  be  parried  or 
resisted.  And  so  it  would  have  been  under  any  circum- 
stances ; but  he,  as  a preacher,  stood  in  relation  to  the 
human  mind,  close  home  upon  the  conscience ; whereas 
others  have  had  to  make  their  way  thither  through  a 
strong  defense  of  inveterate  error.  The  preachers  of  the 
Gospel,  in  the  apostolic  age,  were  thus  disadvantageously 
placed,  for  they  had  to  dispel  several  forms  of  misbeliefs 
before  they  could  assail  unbelief,  and  they  seldom  found 


56 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISIM. 


men  in  what  might  be  called  the  rudimental  condition  of 
impenitence  and  impiety.  As  to  the  Jewish  conscience, 
it  could  be  reached  only  through  a coating  of  national 
pride,  and  of  Rabbinical  evasions ; so  it  was  that  in  the 
synagogue,  the  evangelist  was  challenged  to  prove,  from 
the  Scriptures,  that  ‘‘Jesus  was  the  Christ;”  for,  until 
this  was  done,  he  could  get  no  hearing  for  that  which 
was  to  move  the  conscience.  And  on  the  other  hand,  in 
proclaiming  the  Gospel  among  the  Gentiles,  a bulwark  of 
monstrous  polytheism  stood  across  the  preacher’s  path. 
The  host  of  divinities  was  to  be  driven  from  the  ground, 
before  men  could  at  all  be  reasoned  with  as  immortal  and 
responsible  beings.  And  thus,  too,  it  was  with  the  Re- 
formation preachers,  for  they  were  led  and  indeed  forced, 
to  address  men,  not  primarily,  as  “ dead  in  sins,”  but  in- 
cidentally as  blinded  by  superstition. 

With  a happy  simplicity  of  purpose,  Wesley,  and  so 
Whitefield  and  others,  would  know  nothing  in  addressing 
the  multitude  but  that  which  is  equally  true  of  all  men, 
always,  and  every  where : — he  spoke  of  and  to  them  as 
the  “servants  of  Satan,”  amenable  to  Eteimal  Justice  yet 
embraced  in  the  purposes  of  God’s  mercy  through  Christ. 
Well  indeed  it  was  that  these  preachers  held  themselves 
wholly  clear,  as  they  did,  of  the  fatal  error  of  making  it 
a preliminary  to  their  own  ministrations  to  assail,  and  to 
endeavor  to  overthrow,  the  ecclesiastical  system  under 
which  the  people  of  England  had  lapsed  into  heathenism 
— or  a state  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  it. 

It  was  in  following  the  better  leading  of  this  right  view 
of  human  nature,  and  in  thinking  of  men,  not  as  the  vic- 
tims of  a wrong  guidance,  but  as  the  dupes  of  Satan, 
that  these  preachers  lodged  their  arrow  at  once  in  the 
conscience  of  the  impenitent.  “ I hold  you  fast  as  a 
rebel  against  God.”  In  this  challenge  there  was  no  flat- 
tery ; but  self-love  finds  much  aliment  in  the  argument 
that  is  to  end  in  showing  that  another — a former  guide — 
has  been  the  cause  of  whatever  is  blameworthy  in  the 
disciple. 


LAY  PREACHING  AND  LAY  PREACHERS. 


57 


The  same  simple  intention,  and  the  same  vigorous  grasp 
of  the  true  purpose  of  his  mission,  carried  Wesley  well 
over  the  rough  ground  of  his  own  ecclesiastical  preju- 
dices. These  prejudices,  if  they  had  been  permanently 
adhered  to,  as  would  have  happened  with  a mind  of  less 
energy,  must  wholly  have  prevented  his  fulfilling  his  min- 
istry ; or,  if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  had  been  abandoned 
without  a struggle,  there  might  have  been  room  to  impute 
to  him  an  unscrupulous  ambition.  The  occasions  on 
which  his  deep-rooted  predilections  gave  way,  and  the 
mode  in  which  this  change  was  brought  about,  it  is  edi- 
fying to  consider  ; for  the  man  who  could  never  have  oc- 
cupied a subordinate  position,  or  even  move  forward  with 
an  acknowledged  equal  by  his  side,  is  seen  listening  in 
mid-life,  to  his  aged  mother,  and  yielding  himself  to  her 
influence.  This  worthy  mother  of  such  a son  had,  at  an 
advanced  age,  fallen  in  with  Methodistic  principles.  She 
had  not,  however,  surrendered  her  independence  of  mind  ; 
and  she  gave  her  son  now,  as  she  had  done  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  religious  course,  the  benefit  of  her 
perspicuous  judgment.  Wesleyan  lay  preaching  may  be 
traced  up  to  that  word — well  weighed  before  it  was 
uttered  by  this  ‘‘mother  in  Israel,” — “John,  this  lay 
preacher  is  as  truly  called  of  God  to  preach,  as  you 
are.”  The  Sunday  morning  when  in  compliance  with  his 
mother’s  request  and  opinion,  he  sat  listening  to  Thomas 
Maxwell,  showed  that  truth,  or  what  he  thought  truth, 
held  a sovereign  power  over  him.  He  had  hastened  to 
London  in  very  ill-mood,  intending  to  silence  this  man  ; 
but  in  hearing  him  exercise  the  gifts  of  nature  and  of 
grace,  he  bowed  to  the  manifested  will  of  Him  from 
whom  “every  good  and  perfect  gift  comes.”  The  lay 
preacher  was  therefore  encouraged  ; and  lay  preaching, 
without  which  there  could  have  been  no  Methodism,  re- 
ceived his  sanction,  and  was  put  in  course  of  operation. 

In  any  instance,  to  “forbid”  the  “gifted”  is  to  take 
upon  ourselves  a very  serious  responsibility;  and  if  we 
venture  so  to  do  merely  on  the  ground  of  ecclesiastical 


58 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


principles,  we  should  have  made  ourselves  quite  sure  firsts 
that  these  principles  are  (at  least  in  their  rudiments) 
warrantable  on  evidence  of  Scripture  ; and  then,  that  they 
stand  confirmed  by  a sufficiently  wide  induction  of  prece- 
dents, as  applicable  to  the  case  in  hand. 

Christianity  is  indeed  conserved  by  Church  order ; but 
surely  it  does  not  exist  for  the  sake  of  it.  This,  how- 
ever, has  shown  itself  to  be  the  feeling  of  heartless  and 
mindless  men  in  every  age.  “Order  first,’’  say  they; 
“ and  Christianity  next.”  The  conduct  and  the  language 
of  men  of  this  stamp  seems  to  mean  nothing  less  than 
this : That  the  salvation  of  the  human  family  entire 
would  be  dearly  purchased  at  the  cost  of  any  inroad 
upon  Church  usages.  It  is  manifest  that  in  neglect  or 
contempt  of  order,  Christianity  could  not  have  been  hand- 
ed down  from  age  to  age ; but  unless,  once  and  again, 
order  had  given  way  to  a higher  necessity,  the  Gospel 
must,  by  this  time,  have  lain  deep  buried  beneath  the 
corrupt  accumulations  of  eighteen  hundred  years.  How, 
think  we,  would  it  have  been  held  in  its  brightness  and 
purity  by  those  who,  idolizing  ancient  rules  and  modes, 
become  petrified  around  the  altar  where  they  kneel  ? It 
is  to  minds  of  a very  different  mould  that  the  commission 
is  given  to  restore  what  has  fallen,  and  to  build  again 
the  waste  places,  and  to  re-create  order  by  means  of 
an  hour  of  confusion.  Yet  is  it  a fact  worthy  of  all 
regard — That,  when  Heaven  sends  its  own  chosen  men 
to  bring  about  needed  reformations,  at  the  cost  of  a mo- 
mentary anarchy,  it  does  not  give  any  such  commission  as 
this  to  those  who,  by  temper,  are  anarchists.  The  anar- 
chist is  not  to  be  trusted  in  any  good  work,  for,  as  he 
acknowledges  no  rule  but  that  of  his  own  capricious 
arrogance,  it  is  not  he  who  will  bring  home  fruit  for  the 
general  good. 

The  Wesleys  furnish  a notable  illustration  of  this 
principle.  Great  innovators,  indeed,  they  were ; but 
anarchists  they  were  not.  Themselves  bred  within  a 
strict  ecclesiastical  inclosure,  and  firm  in  their  attach- 


LAY  PREACHING  AND  LAY  PREACHERS.  59 

ment  to  its  principles  and  practices,  and  far  from  indif- 
ferent to  the  prerogatives  which  personally  they  thence 
derived,  and  by  temper  also  abhorrent  of  schism,  and 
inclined  to  defer  to  authority,  they  were  doubly  and 
trebly  guarded  against  the  temptation  to  violate  rules 
and  usages  at  the  impulse  of  mere  self-will  or  caprice. 
Nevertheless  these  were  the  men  who,  in  fact,  and  before 
they  had  advanced  far  on  their  path,  found  themselves 
compelled  with  their  own  hands,  to  snap  asunder,  as  well 
the  staff  “ beauty,”  as  the  staffs  bands  and  they  rent, 
not  a Church  they  denounced,  but  the  very  Church  they 
sincerely  loved  and  fondly  clung  to.  And  how  wide 
is  the  rent  which  was  then  made ; for  the  Methodistic 
schism — which,  however,  did  not  commence  with  the 
Wesleys’  own  irregular  ministrations,  but  with  the  send- 
ing forth  of  lay  preachers — has  not  merely  drawn  off 
certain  classes  of  the  community  from  the  Episcopal 
Church,  but,  by  the  new  life  it  diffused  on  all  sides  of 
itself,  it  has  preserved  from  extinction  and  has  re-ani- 
mated the  languishing  nonconformity  of  the  last  century, 
which,  just  at  the  time  of  the  Methodistic  revival,  was 
rapidly  in  course  to  be  found  nowhere  but  in  books. 

Charles  Wesley  would  have  been  stopped  on  his  course 
while  struggling  with  his  abhorrence  of  that  only  means 
of  carrying  forward  the  work  they  had  commenced — 
lay  preaching.  But  John  could  be  stopped  by  no  interior 
reluctance,  as  by  no  external  obstacle  or  opposition, 
when  once  the  work  he  was  born  to  achieve  stood  out 
clearly  developed  before  him.  At  this  time  it  did  so 
stand  developed  in  his  view ; and  while  he,  of  all  men, 
was  the  most  self-determining  in  relation  to  whatever 
came  under  his  entire  control,  none  was  more  docile 
than  he,  or  more  quick  to  adapt  himself  to  new  circum- 
stances, when  called  upon  by  his  religious  convictions, 
or  by  his  practical  good  sense,  to  relinquish  his  cher- 
ished opinions.  Besides,  men  of  his  order  of  mind  are 
seen  more  readily  to  give  way  to  the  course  of  events, 

* Zech.  xi.  7. 


60 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


than  otners  do,  because,  while  they  do  so,  they  inwardly 
rely  upon  that  inexhaustible  store  of  expedients,  and  of 
ready  skill,  which  will  enable  them,  though  driven  from 
their  path  for  a time,  to  return  to  it  anon.  So  great 
was  the  disparity,  on  every  ground,  between  himself  and 
his  irregular  coadjutors,  of  which  disparity  he  and  they 
were  fully  conscious,  that  he  doubted  not  he  should  be 
able  to  avail  himself  always  of  the  zeal  and  ability  he 
had  called  to  his  service,  precisely  so  far  as  he  thought 
good,  and  then  effectively  to  curb  its  excesses.  This 
anticipation  was  grounded,  too  much,  upon  a confidence 
in  his  own  powers ; and  it  included  too  little  thought  of 
those  powers  that  were  about  to  be  developed  under  his 
hand.  Nature  (if  we  may  use  a profane  term)  is  more 
rich  and  various  in  her  bestowments  than  those  are  apt 
to  imagine  who  feel  that  the  crowd  around  them  are 
much  their  inferiors.  Such  master  minds  are  startled 
when  the  highly  gifted  step  suddenly  upon  their  path. 

But  we  need  not  ask  whether  Wesley  could,  by  any 
means,  have  dispensed  with  lay  preaching ; or  whether 
he  might  better  have  controlled  it  than  he  did,  or,  whether 
he  ought  altogether  to  have  denied  himself  the  use  of  this 
perilous  engine.  Who  is  so  earth-prone  in  eye  as  not 
to  see  that  Christianity  (and  especially  as  consigned  to 
the  care  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race — God’s  now  “ chosen 
people”)  then  failing  in  its  influence,  and  as  it  might 
seem,  likely  to  be  discarded,  was  to  be  granted  afresh 
to  the  world,  and  to  be  brought  back  upon  its  own  potent 
rudiments.  The  great  principle  of  the  apostolic  min- 
istry and  writings,  was  anew  to  be  proclaimed,  as  with 
a loud  voice,  “ in  the  midst  of  heaven.”  Let  ecclesiastics 
plant  their  chairs  upon  the  rim  of  the  rising  waters,  and 
thence  prohibit  the  tide  of  salvation  for  the  world ; or 
let  the  wise  and  ‘‘  moderate”  show  us  by  what  means, 
even  if  Protestant  bishops  had  been  as  supple  and  crafty 
as  are  popes  and  cardinals,  Wesley  and  his  lay  preachers 
might  have  been  enticed  into  Church  inclosures,  and 
there  beguiled  till  they  had  forgotten  their  fervor. 


LAY  PREACHING  AND  LAY  PREACHERS. 


61 


If  no  other  obstacle  had  stood  in  the  way  of  a coales- 
cence with  the  Church,  the  incongruous  articles  of  Wes- 
ley’s creed,  and  to  which  he  so  pertinaciously  adhered, 
as  of  prime  importance,  must  have  forbidden  it,  even 
if  the  rulers  of  the  Church  had  condescended  to  consider 
a project  of  the  kind.  None,  in  the  Church,  could  have 
thought  themselves  warranted  in  propounding  those  con- 
cessions upon  which  Wesley  would  have  insisted.  But  at 
this  time  it  was  not  a consentaneous,  but  an  antago- 
nistic impulse  that  was  needed  ; and  lay  preaching  was 
the  very  force  which  this  urgent  occasion  demanded. 

It  is  not  disingenuousness  merely,  but  obtuseness  of 
perception  as  to  human  character,  that  has  led  certain 
writers  to  insinuate  that  Wesley’s  professed  repugnance 
to  lay  preaching  was  feigned.  Inconsistent  in  its  ex- 
pression it  might  be,  and  was ; but  genuine,  if  there  be 
any  thing  at  all  trustworthy  in  human  nature.  Manifestly 
the  course  which  he  and  his  brother  had  been  pursuing, 
in  forming  religious  societies,  could  not  reach  any  useful 
issue  otherwise  than  by  calling  forth  a new  species  of 
ministrations.  This  new  ministry  was  his  own  work ; 
and  yet  he  quailed  in  the  presence  of  it;  and  like  the 
Demiurge  of  Gnosticism,  he  dared  not  look  at  the  creature 
he  had  unadvisedly  evoked  from  chaos.  Not  as  yet 
had  he  learned  the  import  of  those  words,  within  which 
so  much  of  the  Christian  history  is  summarily  compre- 
hended— ‘‘  No  man  putteth  new  wine  into  old  bottles ; 
but  new  wine  must  be  put  into  new  bottles.”  So  has 
it  been  from  the  days  of  “Peter,  James,  and  John  and 
so — may  we  not  be  sure? — -will  it  be  at  the  time,  yet 
future,  of  refreshment  and  “ restitution  of  all  things.” 

Dispassionately  looked  at,  Wesleyan  Methodism  did 
not  so  much  violate,  as  it  rendered  an  homage  to  the 
principle  of  Church  order  ; for  if  it  broke  in  upon  things 
constituted,  with  a violence  that  threatened  to  overthrow 
whatever  might  obstruct  its  course,  it  presently  after- 
ward emerged  from  its  own  confusion,  and  stood  forth 
as  a finished  pattern  of  organization,  and  an  eminent 


62 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


example  of  the  prevalence  and  supremacy  oi  rules. 
Wesleyan  Methodism,  such  as  it  continued  to  be  while 
its  founder  lived,  was  not  (like  the  Romish  orders)  an 
organization  of  the  few  who  were  to  act  upon  the  many, 
but  an  enrollment  of  the  few  along  with  the  many : Meth- 
odism, in  a word,  was  law — written  upon  the  “ fleshly 
tables”  of  thousands,  and  thousands  again,  of  heretofore 
lawless  hearts. 

The  enlightened  adherents  of  ecclesiastical  institutions 
might  well  persuade  themselves,  therefore,  to  see  in  Meth- 
odism— not,  as  they  are  wont,  a horrible  Vandalism ; but 
the  most  emphatic  recognition  that  has  ever  been  made 
of  the  very  core  of  Church  principles,  namely,  that  Chris- 
tianity can  not  subsist,  does  not  develop  its  genuine 
powers  (longer  than  for  a moment)  apart  from  an  ecclesi- 
astical organization ; and  this  seems  to  mean  nothing  less 
than  a well-compacted  hierarchical  system.  This  surely 
is  the  true  inference  which  should  be  drawn  from  the 
facts  before  us ; but  the  more  obvious  meaning  of  Meth- 
odism is  chosen  by  minds  of  a certain  class.  If  it  had 
been  Wesley’s  fortune  to  be  trampled  to  death  by  a brutal 
mob,  quite  early  in  his  course,  and  while  yet  guiltless  of 
schism,  he  might  have  been  allowed  to  stand  in  a fair 
place  among  martyrs ; but  when  he  is  seen  with  his  lay 
preachers  clinging  to  his  presbyter’s  gown,  nothing  can 
be  done  but  leave  him,  and  them,  to  sink  together  into  the 
deeps  of  ecclesiastical  perdition. 

Several  of  the  first  lay  preachers  were  men  of  very 
extraordinary  natural  powers,  as  well  as  of  deep  and 
genuine  religious  feeling.  Some  had  made  acquisitions 
as  biblical  scholars;  yet  generally,  the  irreparable  want 
of  education  among  them,  and  their  ignorance,  often,  of 
the  Bible  they  were  to  expound,  threw  them  upon  their 
own^  and  their  only  resource  : that  is  to  say,  upon  a single- 
minded  and  fervent  consciousness  of  the  reality,  power, 
and  excellence  of  the  Gospel,  thought  of  in  its  first  prin- 
ciples. They  were  men,  some  of  them,  whose  power 
over  the  people,  as  preachers,  was  little  less  than  that 


LAY  PREACHING  AND  LAY  PREACHERS.  63 

of  their  educated  masters : nevertheless,  their  range  of 
subjects  was  limited,  and  they  were  confined,  by  a neces- 
sity thence  resulting,  to  the  straight  and  strait  path  of 
elementary  teaching.  This  confinement,  however,  does 
not  imply  meagreness  of  thought,  or  a dull  iteration  of 
things,  uttered  in  the  same  phrases  ten  thousand  times. 
True  indeed  it  is,  that  when  a genuine  fervor  declines, 
and  when  ignorance  collapses  into  vulgarity — that  is  to 
say  into  itself — then  the  ministrations  of  uneducated  men 
become  insufferable.  But  this  was  not  the  case  with  the 
foremost  of  Wesley’s  lay  assistants.  The  “powers  of 
the  world  to  come,”  and  the  brightness  and  efficacy  of 
the  Gospel,  gave  them  their  inspiration.  So  it  was  that, 
while  Wesley  and  his  three  or  four  educated  colleagues 
held  to  the  few  and  great  principles  of  the  Gospel  by  the 
intentness  of  their  minds,  and  the  fervent  simplicity  of 
their  zeal,  and  while  the  lay  preachers,  by  the  paucity 
of  their  ideas,  and  the  slenderness  of  their  knowledge, 
kept  to  the  same  narrow  path,  the  result  toward  the  peo- 
ple was  to  prevent  the  vast  disparity  between  the  two 
classes  of  teachers  from  becoming  painfully  apparent. 
This  is  seen,  by  contrast,  every  where  in  communions 
from  which  evangelical  fervor  has  departed  ; for  there, 
all  the  vast  diflference  between  one  preacher  and  another, 
in  natural  ability  and  in  furniture,  is  fully  felt,  and  is  ac- 
curately measured  by  practiced  hearers.  Yet  let  but  the 
energies  of  heavenly  truth  return  to  such  bodies,  and 
these  disparities  would  become  less  conspicuous,  or  would 
almost  cease  to  be  regarded. 

A hundred  times  it  has  been  said,  by  those  who  would 
fain  show  their  liberality  in  getting  up  an  apology  for  lay 
preaching,  that  it  is  the  lay  preacher’s  employment  of  a 
dialect  colloquially  understood  by  the  mass  of  the  people, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  low  level  of  his  ideas,  that  fit 
him  for  his  office  as  their  instructor.  But,  in  fact,  men 
of  the  highest  culture  make  themselves  thoroughly  in- 
telligible to  the  rudest  minds,  if  only  they  have  a soul 
and  purpose  thereto  adapted ; and  they  find  they  can  do 


64 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


this  without  vitiating  their  style  by  any  admixture  of 
colloquial  vulgarities.  It  is  concentration,  and  not  a 
low  familiarity ; it  is  the  elementary  grandeur  of  first 
truths  that  forcefully  opens  a way  into  the  human  heart, 
whether  cultured  or  rude.  Whether  it  be  the  bearer 
and  winner  of  academic  honors,  or  the  recently-washen 
mason  or  shoemaker — the  preacher  who  feels  with  pow- 
er and  freshness  such  truths,  and  who  brings  to  bear 
upon  the  utterance  of  them  some  natural  gifts,  is  always 
listened  to  by  the  mass  of  men ; — for  the  hearer  feels  that 
the  preacher  is  dealing  out  what  he  imparts,  as  if  from 
an  unexhausted  treasure.  He  never  seems  to  have  nearly 
uttered  all  his  mind,  or  emptied  his  heart.  Cultured 
congregations,  it  is  true,  must  be  addressed  by  cultured 
preachers,  who  are  qualified  to  entertain  a sophisticated 
religious  taste  with  what  is  discursive.  But  with  the 
multitude,  all  is  well  so  long  as  the  preacher,  whether 
bred  in  the  college  or  the  shop,  utters  with  feeling,  and 
in  a concentrated  style,  that  which  is  acknowledged  to 
be  of  primary  importance. 

The  great  effects  produced  in  the  early  years  of  Meth- 
odism, by  some,  even  of  the  less  gifted  of  the  lay  preach- 
ers, has  not  been  understood  by  those  who,  in  attempting 
to  account  for  the  fact,  have  themselves  been  wanting  in 
sympathy  with  those  primary  truths.  Wesley  in  one  set 
of  phrases,  and  Whitefield  in  another,  spoke,  sometimes 
with  a startling  conciseness,  sometimes  with  an  over- 
whelming copiousness — of  heaven,  of  hell,  of  eternity,  of 
the  power,  and  justice,  and  mercy  of  God,  of  an  ample 
redemption,  of  an  immediate  release  from  guilt  and  danger, 
and  of  a present  fruition  of  the  Divine  favor.  The  style 
and  manner  of  these  preachers  seemed  like  a clearing 
of  the  clouds  from  the  heavens,  so  that  the  sun  in  his 
strength  might  shine  upon  the  dead  earth.  And  so  the 
lay  preachers,  taking  up  the  same  style,  and  fraught  with 
the  same  powers,  became  at  once  terse  from  intensity 
of  feeling,  and  copious  from  the  fullness  of  their  subject. 
This  copiousness  filled  and  overflowed  the  channel  of 


LAY  PREACHING  AND  LAY  PREACHERS. 


65 


their  individual  minds.  Ignorance  or  narrowness  of  fac- 
ulty were  lost  and  overpowered; — neither  speaker  nor 
hearer  knew  what  was  the  small  measure  of  the  earthen 
vessel  whence  flowed  the  rich  nourishment  of  the  soul. 
To  the  lay  preacher,  while  thus  ministering  from  out  of 
his  penury,  the  words,  in  an  accommodated  sense,  might 
have  been  addressed — “I  know  thy  poverty — but  thou 
art  rich.” 

Notwithstanding  that  many  who  at  first  offered  them- 
selves to  the  service  sickened  of  it  under  its  severe  con- 
ditions, and  went  back,  yet  in  most  places  Wesley  found 
it  not  difficult  to  supply  his  societies  with  teachers ; and 
here  there  presents  itself  a principle  of  Christian  statistics 
which  deserves  some  notice.  Whatever  might  be  alleg- 
ed as  to  the  meagre  teaching  of  the  local  preachers,  the 
greater  number  of  the  itinerant  preachers  were  men  fairly 
qualified  for  the  service  for  which  Wesley  had  accepted 
their  aid.  If  not  fastidious  in  his  taste,  he  did  not  indis- 
criminately, or  in  a slovenly  manner,  avail  himself  of 
such  help.  He  looked  to  his  men — he  heard  them — prov- 
ed them — held  them  awhile  on  probation ; and  not  in  any 
large  proportion  of  instances  was  he  shown  to  have  too 
hastily  admitted  any  to  Wesleyan  “ orders.” 

It  may  be  inferred,  then,  from  this  instance,  that  a re- 
ligious body,  within  which  there  is  vitality,  will  ordinarily 
supply  itself  with  an  adequate  proportion  of  ministers. 
And  it  may  be  taken  as  a rule  that  the  supply  will  come 
from  what  may  be  considered  as  the  mean  level  of  the 
society,  as  to  rank  and  knowledge.  So  it  appears  to 
have  been  in  the  Wesleyan  body,  and  the  instance, 
when  assumed  as  a ground  of  reasoning,  embraces  a 
very  wide  surface,  and  includes  great  varieties  of  cir- 
cumstance. 

A crowding  toward  the  sacred  office  is  not  a fact  of 
frequent  occurrence ; but  a lack  of  candidates,  or,  what 
is  nearly  of  the  same  import,  the  derivation  of  its  ministers, 
in  any  communion,  from  a rank  below  the  mean  level  of  the 
people,  is  an  ominous  symptom  and  should  engage  the 


66 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


most  serious  attention  of  those  who  undertake  to  think 
and  care  for  the  body. 

But  if  the  instance  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  is  taken 
to  establish  the  general  rule — that  a religious  community, 
when  it  is  in  a healthy  condition,  will  supply  itself  with 
ministers,  it  gives  negative  evidence  also  in  confirmation 
of  another  rule,  which  this  body  has  too  little  regarded, 
namely — That  although  such  a body  may  supply  itself 
with  preachers,  it  is  not  without  a Church  that  pastors 
are  to  be  reared.  And  here  we  are  not  thinking  so  much 
of  a hierarchy,  and  of  a settled  scheme  of  government,  as 
of  that  more  broadly-based  economy,  and  of  that  more 
deep-seated  organization,  which  should  bring  the  Chris- 
tian system,  entire,  to  bear  upon  Christian  homes.  Here 
has  been  (and  we  must  return  to  so  important  a subject) 
the  main  point  of  defectiveness  in  Wesleyan  Methodism; 
and  it  sprang  unavoidably  from  Wesley’s  reluctance  to 
break  away  from  the  Episcopal  Church;  — it  was  an 
association  of  Converts : he  would  not  call  it,  and  did  not 
make  it,  a Church.  The  Nonconformists,  to  some  extent, 
had  fallen  into  the  same  fault,  which  is  that  of  protesting 
sects  generally.  Methodism  regarded  its  converts  indi- 
vidually — it  knew  them  not,  or  knew  them  imperfectly, 
in  their  home  relationships.  The  head  of  a family — hus- 
band, father,  and  master — was,  in  its  view,  a convert 
only,  or  chiefly ; he  was  not  recognized  as  the  hierarch 
of  home.  Unless  a Christian  body  becomes  vital  through- 
out its  mass,  in  a domestic  sense,  it  will  neither  be  con- 
scious of  its  want  of  pastors,  nor  will  it  furnish  such  from 
its  own  bosom.  An  itinerating  ministry,  useful  as  it  is 
in  certain  respects,  and  well  adapted  to  the  wants  of  a 
recently-evangelized  people,  must  be  regarded  as  indica- 
tive of  a crude  Christian  condition : — it  is  a practice  that 
belongs  to  a transition  state  of  things — a state  which  is 
not  to  be  remedied  by  a more  careful  training  of  itiner- 
ating ministers ; but  in  no  other  way  than  by  a far-reach- 
ing renovation  of  the  social  mass ; — in  a word,  by  carry- 
ing Christianity,  in  its  silent  energies,  from  the  chapel  to 


LAY  PREACHING : METHODISM  AND  ROMANISM.  67 


the  house.  Wesley  at  length  permitted  his  preachers  to 
administer  the  sacraments,  and  therefore  to  baptize  in- 
fants. But  where  there  is  no  Church — where  children 
are  not  thought  of  as  “ members  of  Christ,”  and  where 
they  come  under  no  discipline  as  such,  the  rite  of  baptism 
administered  in  infancy,  is  a five  minutes’  operation — 
profitless,  perplexing,  unintelligible,  and  out  of  harmony, 
as  well  with  the  Christian  scheme,  as  with  the  system 
under  which  it  takes  place.  An  incongruity,  not  per- 
ceived by  the  parties,  but  yet  serious,  was  it  when  these 
preachers,  whose  function  was  only  convert  making,  wel- 
comed infants  into  a society  from  which  they  were  in- 
stantly afterward  thrust  out ; or  thenceforward  forgotten 
by  it,  until  they  were  of  age  to  listen  to  sermons. 


LAY  PREACHING  ; AND  A POINT  OF  COMPARISON  SUGGESTED 
BETWEEN  METHODISM  AND  ROMANISM. 

Those  who  are  in  any  degree  conversant  with  religious 
history  will  be  apt  to  think  that  a religious  system  pro- 
mulgated and  maintained  to  so  great  an  extent  by  a body 
of  fervently-minded  but  uneducated  men,  could  not  fail  to 
generate  within  itself  various  forms  of  error,  and  that  it 
would  go  more  and  more  astray  every  year  of  its  con- 
tinuance. In  looking  into  the  Memoirs,”  the  ‘‘  Journals,” 
the  “Experiences,”  of  some  of  Wesley’s  lay  preachers, 
the  sober  reader  is  perplexed,  if  not  scandalized,  by  what 
he  there  finds,  and  he  becomes  painfully  perplexed  while 
— fearing  lest  he  should  compromise  sacred  truths — he 
resents  and  rejects  so  much  of  that  with  which  they  are 
there  mixed.  After  reading  some  of  these  personal  his- 
tories one  may  think  it  inevitable  that,  when  so  much 
heat  has  cooled  down,  extravagance  will  pass  into  enor- 
mity ; and  that  what  has  begun  wildly,  will  finish  worse. 
Such  has  actually  been  the  course  of  things  in  a few  in- 
stances ; nevertheless,  no  such  gradual  vitiation  of  its 


68 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


doctrine  and  of  its  practices  has  broadly  marked  the 
history  of  Wesleyan  Methodism.  On  the  contrary,  like 
a liquor  of  good  body,  it  has  well  .passed  through  its 
season  of  fermentation,  and  has  become  brighter  and 
clearer  than  at  first,  and  better  flavored.  Yet  even  the 
most  favorably  disposed  of  by-standers  might  have  been 
warranted  in  predicting  a different  course  of  things,  when 
it  was  seen  in  how  perilous  a manner  Wesley  himself 
cherished  and  fomented,  as  well  among  preachers  as 
people,  tendencies  which  it  should  have  been  his  part  to 
repress.  Not  seldom  it  was  he,  rather  than  they,  that  set 
reason  at  defiance,  and  forgot  sobriety. 

But  the  issue,  so  much  more  favorable  as  it  is  than 
might  have  been  anticipated,  doubtless  has  its  cause ; and 
this  cause  becomes  manifest  when,  in  the  exercise  of  a 
cool  discrimination,  we  institute  a comparison  (once  so 
unfairly  drawn)  between  the  “ enthusiasm  of  Methodists 
and  Papists.”  Let  a point  or  two  of  such  a comparison 
be  considered.  The  contrast  in  each  particular  (how- 
ever many  might  be  adduced)  would  be  found  to  turn 
upon  one  and  the  same  ground  of  essential  dissimilarity. 
Methodism,  amid  all  its  early  wanderings,  still  kept  its 
hold  of  that  Gospel,  which  Romanism  had  never  pos- 
sessed, or  had  deeply  perverted.  Principal  truths,  pro- 
claimed distinctly,  and  held  always  in  a prominent  place, 
exhibit  a repellant  force ; they  clear  the  atmosphere,  and 
disinfect  all  things  around  them.  Those  irregularities 
and  excesses  of  opinion  and  behavior  which  usually  at- 
tend religious  excitements,  and  which  have  their  rise  in 
human  nature,  do  not  perpetuate  themselves,  and  do  not 
tend  toward  a worse  issue,  until  the  system  under  which 
they  have  appeared  has  itself  lost  its  vitality.  Thus  it 
has  been  with  Romanism,  and  it  is  easy  to  put  the  finger 
upon  the  instances.  It  is  not  Romanism,  or  any  other 
system  of  belief;  but  it  is  our  human  nature  that  is  to  be 
blamed  for  its  tendency,  under  powerful  excitements,  to 
germinate  a wild  and  bitter  growth  of  enthusiastic  and 
fanatical  extravagance.  But  while  under  one  system  of 


LAY  PREACHING:  METHODISM  AND  ROMANISM.  69 

belief  this  produce  blossoms  only  for  a day,  and  then 
withers  and  disappears,  under  another  it  gets  possession 
of  the  soil,  and  overshadows  every  thing.  A religious 
system  may  be  such  as  that,  beneath  its  influence,  every 
weed  of  the  human  heart  finds  what  it  seeks  ; enthusiasm, 
wherever  it  touches,  inflames,  and  fanaticism  secretes 
poison,  as  a gangrene.  But  let  the  instances,  or  one  or 
two  such,  be  noted. 

At  the  time  when  Bishop  Lavington’s  book  appeared — 
“The  Enthusiasm  of  Methodists  and  Papists  Compared,” 
many  features  of  the  Wesleyan  polity  were  of  a kind  that 
might  seem  to  warrant  the  institution  of  this  comparison  ; 
and  they  were  such  as  w^ould  bear  out  the  author’s  pro- 
fessed intention — to  disparage  the  one,  by  linking  it  to  the 
other.  But  a century  almost  has  elapsed  since  that  com- 
parison was  drawn  ; and  in  this  course  of  time,  while 
Romanism  has  retained,  unaltered,  each  of  its  characteris- 
tics, Methodism  has  passed  its  season  of  effervescence, 
and  has  taken  to  itself  a form,  matured  and  defined,  in 
which  its  tendencies,  whatever  they  may  be,  have  become 
fully  developed  ; nor  can  we,  unless  by  our  own  fault, 
misapprehend  them.  What,  then,  would  be  the  issue  of 
an  equitably  conducted  comparison  of  Methodism  and 
Romanism,  as  they  now  stand  before  us,  both  perfectly 
known,  at  this  time,  or,  indeed,  at  any  time  subsequent  to 
the  decease  of  the  Founder  ? 

We  take,  then,  that  which  has  ever  been  a marked 
feature  of  all  the  religious  fervors  which  Romanism  has 
cherished  and  recognized — namely,  ascetic  extravagances 
This  same  feature  attached  also  to  Methodism,  in  its  early 
stages,  in  a very  decisive  manner.  We  have  here  before 
us,  therefore,  a well-defined  and  prominent  instance,  char- 
acteristic alike  of  the  two  systems. 

Wesley’s  constitutional  tone,  and  the  nerve  and  iron  of 
his  frame — mind  and  body,  as  well  as  his  early  training 
and  his  adopted  opinions,  all  favored  the  growth  of  the 
ascetic  temper,  and  impelled  him  to  give  way  to  that 
which  is  the  constant  leaning  of  severe  and  deep-felt 


70 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


religious  fervor.  The  rigid  abstinences  and  mortifica- 
tions of  his  initial  course  had  nearly  cost  him  his  life : and 
although  the  sharp  lesson  of  prudence  which  he  then 
learned,  together  with  his  native  good  sense,  taught  him 
to  moderate  these  voluntary  severities,  he  was,  to  the 
end,  in  feeling  and  opinion,  the  ascetic,  and,  under  favor- 
ing circumstances,  he  would,  no  doubt,  have  indulged  him- 
self largely  in  these  tastes.  But  in  fact  the  hard  condi- 
tions of  itinerancy  came  in  the  place  of  fasts  and  scourges; 
for  those  may  well  think  their  shoulders  excused  from  the 
discipline  of  the  flagellum,  who  are  used  so  freely  as  he 
did,  to  expose  their  bosoms  to  the  brutality  of  mobs. 

Many,  perhaps  most,  of  the  lay  preachers,  either  spon- 
taneously, or  in  following  the  example  of  their  master, 
trod  the  same  rugged  path,  at  first ; and  some  of  them 
carried  to  the  most  extreme  point  the  experiment  of  what 
the  body  may  endure,  and  yet  survive,  so  long  as  the 
agonies  of  the  soul  are  always  keeping  ahead  of  the 
miseries  of  the  flesh.  Often  did  the  lay  preacher,  after  a 
day  of  toil  in  the  line  of  his  business,  as  mason,  baker, 
shoemaker,  spend  half  the  night  in  fervent  devotional 
exercises,  and,  at  five  in  the  morning,  come  fasting  to 
take  his  place  in  the  pulpit,  so  utterly  spent  as  that  he  was 
fain  to  prop  his  trembling  frame  by  clinging  to  the  rail,  or 
throwing  his  weight  upon  the  desk. 

In  these  instances — and  they  were  varied  in  every  way 
— the  unavoidable  burden  of  toil,  pain,  and  privation,  inci- 
dent to  the  preacher’s  course  of  life,  was  made  to  press 
cruelly  both  upon  mind  and  body,  by  ascetic  practices — 
not  less  extreme  than  those  which  have  been  so  much 
boasted  of  by  or  on  the  behalf  of  the  canonized  of  the 
Romish  Calendar.  Such  was  Methodism — such  was  its 
“ enthusiasm”  at  its  commencement.  But  have  these  er- 
rors gone  on  increasing  to  more  extravagance ; or  have 
they  rooted  themselves  in  the  system?  It  is  far  other- 
wise, and  the  reason  why  they  have  not  done  so  is  obvi- 
ous ; it  is  not  that  human  nature  does  not  always,  and 
every  where,  favor  the  growth  of  religious  extravagance, 


LAY  PREACHING:  METHODISM  AND  ROMANISM.  71 

but  because  this  tendency  has  met  its  proper  counter- 
action. 

To  take  the  instance  of  the  lay  preacher  whom  we  have 
just  spoken  of — fainting  under  a self-imposed  burden;  and 
let  it  be  asked,  what  is  the  doctrine  which,  when  excite- 
ment has  come  to  his  aid,  he  is  passionately  enforcing? 
It  is  that  very  doctrine  which  Rome  has  never  under- 
stood, and  in  presence  of  which  asceticism,  whether  murky 
or  fanatical,  disappears.  This  error  need  not  be  formally 
rebuked  ; — it  was  not  rebuked,  but  rather  invited,  by 
Wesley  and  his  preachers  ; yet,  spite  of  the  favor  shown 
it,  room  was  not  found  for  it ; austerities  withered  in 
their  own  lifelessness ; and  the  phantom — righteousness 
by  starvation — met  its  end  in  the  most  suitable  mode,  by 
atrophy,  that  is  to  say,  by  lack  of  doctrinal  nourishment. 
The  pardon  of  sin — free,  full,  immediate — a redemption 
obtained  for  man,  and,  by  a sovereign  act,  granted  to  him 
without  money  and  without  price — children’s  privileges 
in  the  household  of  faith — these  announcements,  these  first 
principles,  giving  life  to  the  desponding  spirit,  and  impart- 
ing the  energy  of  hope  to  the  moral  nature,  would  not  fail 
to  supersede  asceticism,  or  to  disenchant  it.  The  fascina- 
tion of  these  frivolous  severities  is  gone  when  once  the 
heart  has  freely  admitted  the  Gospel  in  its  grandeur  and 
simplicity.  Methodism,  then,  or  rather  the  Christianity  it 
embodied,  absorbed  the  errors  incident  to  a season  of 
extraordinary  religious  agitation.  In  this  respect,  if  in 
no  other,  Methodism,  since  Bishop  Lavington’s  time,  has 
come  right. 

But  how  has  it  been  with  Romanism  ? There  can  be 
no  need  to  swell  a paragraph  with  many  instances  in 
contrast,  where  the  broad  facts  are  within  every  one’s 
familiar  knowledge. 

The  ancient  asceticism  sprang  naturally,  and  without 
blame,  out  of  those  influences  which  bore  upon  the  Church 
in  the  third  century,  and  afterward.  On  various  grounds 
the  early  solitary  and  ascetic  life  claims  a respectful  re- 
gard ; but  a very  few  years  elapsed  before  a simple  and 


72 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


blameless  species  of  enthusiasm  started  off  at  a rapid  pace, 
and  continued  advancing  on  the  road  of  extravagance  and 
fanaticism,  in  a manner  that  is  revolting  to  think  of.  The 
athletes  of  one  generation  were  quite  eclipsed  by  their 
ambitious  successors  of  the  next : what  had  seemed  much 
in  one  age,  seemed  little  in  the  following : there  was  a 
constant  progression,  on  this  ground.  Inartificial  and 
mild  austerities  gave  way  to  systematized  enormities ; 
and  the  spontaneous  privations  of  an  earlier  time  were 
brought  under  the  iron  tyranny  of  rules  in  a later  time. 
The  innocent  and  picturesque  romance  of  the  herb-eating 
recluse,  in  his  cavern  or  sepulchre,  was  despised  by  the 
Christian  fakir  who,  a few  years  afterward,  took  his  place. 
So  it  was,  whether  in  hermitages  or  in  convents,  that  a 
something  more  was  looked  for  from  those  who  professed 
^‘Perfection.”  Fifty  Pater-nosters  in  the  twenty-four  hours 
gave  way  to  three  hundred  ; three  days’  total  abstinence 
from  food,  to  ten  days  or  a fortnight ; a leathern  girdle, 
to  a spiked  iron  band.  Frenzy  drove  out  folly,  and  fraud 
took  up  the  game  when  frenzy  had  spent  itself,  and  could 
go  no  further.  Summarily  stated,  is  not  this  the  history 
of  asceticism  as  originated  in  the  East  long  before  the 
rise  of  Romanism,  and  as  adopted,  and  carried  forward, 
and  canonized  by  it,  and  as  it  is  now  lauded  and  imitated 
by  the  Romish  Church  ? 

The  reason  of  the  progress  and  permanence  of  this  ten- 
dency of  human  nature  within  that  Church  can  not  be 
misapprehended.  Even  if  the  Gospel  had  not,  at  a very 
early  time,  been  dimmed  and  nearly  lost,  this  same  exu- 
berance would,  no  doubt,  have  been  developed  ; but  the 
supervening,  so  early,  of  “ another  Gospel” — that  is  to 
say,  of  a Christianity  interpreted  according  to  the  leaning 
of  the  human  heart  toward  formalism  and  self-depend- 
ence, not  only  left  asceticism  unchecked,  but  gave  it  a 
direct  encouragement.  That  doctrinal  system  which,  as 
afterward  defined  and  matured,  is  what  we  mean  when 
we  speak  of  the  theology  of  Romanism,  allotted  a place 
to  this  species  of  enthusiasm,  and  fixed  it  immovably  m 


LAY  PREACHING  : METHODISM  AND  ROMANISM.  73 

that  place.  Sin,  expiated  by  austerities,  and  merits  won 
and  laid  up  in  store  by  courses  of  voluntary  tortuie — 
these  notions  and  these  practices  became  indispensable 
parts  of  that  one  scheme  of  salvation  which  Rome  pro- 
pounded to  the  Western  nations.  On  this  ground  of  com- 
parison, therefore,  the  “ enthusiasm  of  Methodists’’  is  seen 
in  decisive  contrast  to  the  ‘’enthusiasm  of  Papists.” 

There  is,  however,  one  other  very  significant  point  of 
comparison  between  the  two  systems,  which  claims  to 
be  regarded  ; and  it  deserves  the  more  attention  because 
a century  ago  the  Methodistic  enthusiasm  seemed  to  fall 
little  short  of  the  Romish  on  this  ground. 

What  we  have  in  view  is  the  encouragement  given, 
at  first,  by  Wesleyan  Methodism,  as  also  by  Romanism, 
to  whatever  touches  upon  the  supernatural  and  the  mi- 
raculous. Wesley’s  most  prominent  infirmity  was  his 
wonder-loving  credulity ; — from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  his  course  this  weakness  ruled  him.  Few  were  the 
instances  in  which  he  exercised  a due  discrimination  in 
listening  to  tales  involving  what  was  miraculous,  or  out 
of  the  order  of  nature.  It  is,  in  fact,  mortifying  to  con- 
template an  instance  like  this,  of  a powerful  mind  bend- 
ing like  a straw  in  the  wind  before  every  whiff  of  the 
supernatural.  It  was  only  in  the  course  of  things  that, 
with  a leader  thus  minded,  those  who  follow^ed,  and  they 
being  for  the  most  part  the  uneducated,  should  be  rela- 
tors of  wonders,  and  should  eagerly  listen  to  whatever 
brought  with  it  this  ever-coveted  species  of  excitement. 
The  personal  histories  of  the  Methodistic  worthies,  their 
autobiographies  and  obituaries,  are  rendered  distasteful 
by  the  too  copious  admixture  of  incidents  which  try  the 
faith  of  a cool-tempered  reader.  In  truth,  some  of  these 
narratives  are  much  in  the  style  of  those  Lives  of  the 
Saints,”  which  none  but  good  Catholics  should  be  allowed 
to  look  into. 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  the  decisive  start  which  was 
thus  given  to  the  supernatural  at  the  commencement  of 
Methodism,  it  presently  fell  back  from  its  foremost  posi 

D 


74 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


tion  in  the  system,  and  came  to  be  less  and  less  sought  after 
every  year.  At  the  present  time,  and  so  it  has  been  for  a 
long  while  past,  no  more  encouragement  is  given  to  this 
morbid  appetite  by  the  regular  Wesleyan  ministers  than 
is  done  by  any  other  body  of  instructed  religious  teach- 
ers. Miracles  are  neither  looked  for,  nor  are  they  de- 
sired, in  that  communion.  A Wesleyan  superintendent 
would,  in  most  cases,  be  forward  to  sift  to  the  bran  any 
wonderment  story  that  he  might  find  to  be  agitating  his 
circuit ; and  the  spread  of  a popular  delusion  within  the 
body,  involving  an  alleged  miracle,  would  be  regarded 
by  Wesleyan  principals  only  in  the  light  of  an  ill-omened 
occurrence.  Let  the  attempt  be  made  to  persuade  the 
lower  classes  of  that  communion  that  a certain  bust  of 
Wesley  may  be  seen,  now  and  then,  to  wink,  weep,  and 
grin!  Would  such  an  attempt  be  authorized  by  “Con- 
ference and  yet,  a hundred  years  ago,  “ the  enthusiasm 
of  Methodists^’  might  have  been  thought  to  be  rapidly 
advancing  toward  such  a stage  of  credulity  as  this;  but 
this  tendency  has  entirely  ceased  to  show  itself. 

How  is  it  with  the  analogous  enthusiasm  of  Romanists? 
A hundred  years  ago  the  Church  of  Rome  professed,  as  it 
always  has  done,  the  command  of  miraculous  powers, 
and  vaunted  the  healing  efficacy  of  its  holy  relics.  But 
was  this  a lingering  remains  only  of  the  superstition  and 
trickery  of  the  dark  ages  ? The  enthusiasm  of  Method- 
ists and  Papists  once  ran  abreast  on  this  road : are  the 
two  abreast  at  this  time  ? Intelligent  Romanists  can  not 
complain  of  unfair  treatment  when  notorious  facts  are 
adverted  to,  and  which  show  that,  notwithstanding  the 
enlightenment  of  the  times,  the  mass  of  the  people  in 
Roman  Catholic  countries  have  so  been  trained  by  their 
religious  teachers,  as  that  an  eager  and  mindless  credu- 
lity, if  at  all  it  be  less  now  than  it  was  a century  ago, 
has  received  its  check,  not  from  the  lips  of  the  priest,  im- 
parting a sounder  instruction,  but  from  the  spread  of  a 
licentious  atheism,  and  contempt  of  all  religion.  Yet  this 
is  but  one  side  of  the  facts  that  bear  upon  our  immediate 


LAY  PREACHING:  METHODISM  AND  ROMANISM.  75 


purpose ; for,  not  only  are  the  people,  where  not  mad 
with  atheism,  as  credulous  as  ever,  but  the  chiefs  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  polity — popes,  cardinals,  and  bishops, 
have  not  shown  any  shame  (scarcely  common  discretion) 
while  laboring  to  meet  the  popular  folly,  and  to  supply  it 
with  aliment.  Is  it  not  so  ? Whatever  accident  throws 
in  the  way  of  the  clergy  which  may  be  made  to  serve  as 
the  nucleus  of  a wonderment  agitation,  has  been  eagerly 
caught  at,  and  made  the  most  of.  Let  it  be  acknowl- 
edged that  any  unusual  fact,  not  easily  accounted  for,  and 
over  the  circumstances  of  which  the  Church  could  hold 
control,  would  be  welcomed  by  cardinals,  bishops,  priests 
— yes,  and  by  educated  laymen  and  nobles — as  a provi- 
dential favor  of  inestimable  price  ! How  can  this  be 
doubted  when,  by  such  authorities,  at  this  moment,  the 
nauseating  and  stale  frauds  of  the  darkest  times  are  set 
a-going  among  the  people  as  authentic  wonders  ! 

If,  then,  at  this  time  a balance  were  to  be  struck,  on 
this  ground  of  comparison  also,  namely,  the  enthusiasm 
of  credulity  and  of  popular  infatuation,  as  between  Meth- 
odism and  Romanism,  the  odds  would  be  great.  Nor  are 
the  reasons  of  the  difference  obscure,  for  they  spring 
manifestly  from  the  moral  and  theological  qualities  of  the 
two  systems. 

Untutored  minds,  or  any  within  which  impressions  and 
emotions  are  little  controlled  by  reason,  when  powerfully 
wrought  upon  by  religious  excitements,  become  incapa- 
ble of  discrimination  as  to  the  objects  that  move  them. 
Such  minds,  while  thus  agitated,  are  scarcely  conscious 
of  the  difference  between  sensuous  imaginative  impres- 
sions, and  such  as  are  moral  and  spiritual.  The  imagin- 
ation, the  sensuous  faculties,  the  moral  sense,  the  spiritual 
consciousness,  have  all  received  an  impulse  together,  and 
these  continue  for  some  time  in  a state  of  disorderly  and 
commingled  agitation.  Hence  it  is  that,  in  seasons  of 
religious  quickening  among  the  uneducated  classes,  illu- 
sions, delusions,  and  rude  excesses  abound  ; and  on  this 
ground  it  is  that  self-government,  wisdom,  and  tact  are  so 


76 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


mu<*,h  called  for  in  those  to  whose  zeal  such  movements, 
instrumentally,  owe  their  origin. 

Yet  these  disorders  reach  their  end  safely,  and  at  an 
early  time,  if  only  the  religious  system — the  scheme  of 
doctrine  wherewith  they  are  connected — contains  within 
itself  the  true  principles  of  moral  and  spiritual  renovation. 
Bring  to  bear  upon  minds  religiously  excited  the  proper 
objects  of  genuine  moral  and  spiritual  feeling,  and  there 
will  take  place,  silently,  yet  speedily,  what  might  be  call- 
ed a spontaneous  process  of  discrimination — a separa- 
tion of  incongruous  elements,  and  a disappearance,  entire 
or  partial,  of  the  grosser  matters,  while  the  purer  gain 
ascendency. 

Visions,  trances,  semi-miracles,  lose  their  value  and  be- 
come vapid  inanities,  where  great  truths  hold  their  place. 
Let  the  human  heart,  quickened  in  its  relationship  to  the 
spiritual  world,  meet,  or  come  in  presence  of,  its  true 
objects ; and  it  embraces  them,  assimilates  itself  with 
them  ; and  then,  whatsoever  is  spurious  or  unreal,  loses 
its  hold.  When  within  the  bosom  the  “ day  dawns,”  and 
the  day-star  arises  in  the  heart when  (still  we  screen 
ourselves  in  scriptural  terms)  Christ  is  formed  in  the 
heart when  the  soul  becomes  conscious  that  it  has 
been  made  “ partaker  of  the  Divine  nature,”  then,  and  as 
this  illumination  increases  more  and  more  “ unto  the 
perfect  day,”  shadows  disappear,  the  gliding  forms  of 
superstition  melt  away,  the  fatuous  glare  of  a sensuous 
fancy  loses  its  charm,  and  the  soul  rejoices  in  its  tranquil 
consciousness  of  living  under  the  light  and  warmth  of 
heaven.  This  is  the  history  of  the  early  disappearance 
of  spurious  miracles  within  every  communion  that  has 
held  to  the  Gospel. 

But  the  Romish  Church  has  not  retained  any  such 
knowledge  of  first  truths ; or  it  has  covered  them  with 
perversions.  Therefore  it  is  that,  after  stretching  charity 
and  candor  to  the  utmost,  we  must  still,  in  speaking  of 
this  system,  plainly  call  it  The  Romish  superstition 
therefore  it  is  that  we  can  not  withhold  from  it  the  desig- 


LAY  PREACHING  : METHODISM  AND  ROMANISM.  7^ 


nation  “idolatrous:”  therefore  it  is  that  whatever  has  the 
most  revolted  reason,  and  whatever  has  combined  absurd- 
ity, frivolity,  and  profanity,  has  found  within  it  a shelter, 
.and  a market  too.  It  is  not  possible  otherwise  than  thus 
to  speak  of  Romanism,  such  as  we  find  it  even  now,  wher- 
ever it  has  been  undisturbed  by  correcting  influences 
from  without. 

Romanism  has  at  no  period  of  its  history  dispelled  the 
terrors  of  superstition  from  the  minds  of  men,  or  allayed 
the  grim  forebodings  of  an  evil  conscience : how  should 
it  do  so,  with  its  purgatory,  and  its  promise  of  release 
thence  at  a price  which  legatees  may  refuse  to  pay  ? It 
has  not,  on  the  other  hand,  chastised  the  wantonness  of 
luxurious  and  debauched  imaginations : how  should  it  do 
so,  in  presence  of  its  gaudy  array  of  divinities — male  and 
female?  Yet  it  is  not  Romanism,  but  it  is  our  common 
human  nature  that,  ever  and  anew,  and  with  inexhaustible 
fecundity,  generates,  on  the  one  hand,  the  creatures  of 
superstition,  and  on  the  other  those  of  spiritual  voluptu- 
ousness. But  Romanism,  in  having  retained  no  one  main 
principle  of  Christianity  in  its  simple  integrity,  is  not  seen 
to  exert,  among  these  spurious  creations,  any  corrective 
or  repellant  force.  It  has  never  righted  itself  where  once 
it  has  gone  wrong ; it  has  cut  off  from  itself  no  excres- 
cence that  has  appeared  upon  its  surface.  Enthusiasm 
and  fanaticism  are  its  own  moods.  Delusion  has  settled 
down  upon  it  as  the  thick  atmosphere  of  its  climate. 


WESLEY  AS  FOUNDEP.  OF  AN  INSTITUTE. 

The  ingredients,  the  spirit,  and  the  tendencies  of  Meth- 
odism, as  an  Institute,  will  claim  to  be  considered  apart 
from  our  immediate  purpose,  which  relates  only  to  Wes- 
iey’s  personal  qualities  and  character. 

It  was  under  the  guidance  of  the  broadest  principle,  as 
well  as  at  the  impulse  of  the  most  expansive  charity,  that 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


;8 

he  had  gone  forth  upon  the  field  of  the  world  as  an  evan- 
gelist preaching  repentance.  On  the  broadest  principle 
also  it  was  that  he  laid  the  foundation  of  the  institution 
which  was  destined  to  conserve  the  fruits  of  his  preach^ 
ing ; and  if,  on  such  a foundation  as  this,  he  had  raised  a 
superstructure  more  free  than  it  was  from  admixtures  of 
perishable  matter — if  he  had  somewhat  better  understood 
human  nature,  and  had  on  some  points  less  misunderstood 
Christianity,  this  Institute,  which  was  so  ably  adminis- 
tered for  forty  years  by  himself,  could  scarcely  have  fail- 
ed to  secure  for  itself  a paramount  position  in  England, 
and  it  might  have  planted  itself  territorially  upon  the  ruins 
of  a then  dilapidated  and  almost  deserted  Church.  This 
was  not  to  be. 

If  the  Episcopal  Church — and  many  of  its  enlightened 
adherents  have  not  hesitated  to  acknowledge  this — owes 
to  Methodism,  in  great  part,  the  modern  revival  of  its 
energies,  so  (may  we  not  say  it  ?)  does  it  owe  to  Wes- 
ley’s misapprehensions  of  certain  principles,  its  own  sur- 
vivance  through  that  critical  period,  in  which  there  was 
not  enough  of  life  or  force  left  in  it  to  make  head  against 
what  Methodism  might  have  been,  if  Wesley’s  compass 
of  mind,  as  a legislator,  had  been  of  as  ample  dimensions 
as  his  heart.  This  Institute  was  not,  and  is  not,  a 
Church,  nor  did  he  himself  so  designate  it : the  “ Society” 
was  the  product  of  that  peculiar  view  which  he  was  led 
to  take  of  human  nature,  and  of  the  social  system,  from 
his  position  as  an  Evangelist,  or  preacher  of  repentance. 
The  Wesleyan  Societies  were  constituted  for  the  one 
purpose  of  gathering  and  of  retaining  converts,  and  they 
had  little  adaptation  to  the  purpose  of  Christianizing  the 
social  mass,  otherwise  than  by  vehement  assaults  upon 
the  consciences  of  those  who  could  by  any  means  be  got 
together  to  hear  sermons. 

The  Wesleyan  Institute  grew  out  of  the  work  of  con- 
version; and  it  comprehended  little  that  would  not  press 
itself,  as  urgently  needed,  upon  the  notice  of  the  itinerant 
evangelist,  who,  in  revisiting  the  scene  of  his  first  sue- 


WESLEY  AS  FOUNDER  OF  AN  INSTITUTE.  79 

cesses,  would  not  wish  to  find  all  that  he  had  done  scatter- 
ed and  lost.  For  securing  these  temporary  ends,  and  for 
retaining  its  conquests,  and  for  spreading  them  over  the 
enemy’s  territory  by  incessant  sallies,  as  from  evangelic 
forts,  and  for  perpetuating  the  same  machinery  of  aggres- 
sion, the  Wesleyan  Institute  has  shown  itself  a master- 
piece of  social  organization. 

■ In  dealing  with  whatever  may  belong  to  a process  of 
organization,  or  of  marshaling  a host  for  a single  initiatory 
purpose,  Wesley  has  never  been  surpassed  by  civil,  mili- 
tary, or  ecclesiastical  mechanists.  Nor  has  he  been  sur- 
passed by  any  general,  statesman,  or  churchman,  in  ad- 
ministrative skill ; — that  is  to  say,  in  the  faculty  of  adapt- 
ing himself,  and  his  movements,  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  moment,  without  compromise  of  his  authority  or 
personal  dignity,  and  with  the  least  possible  damage  done 
to  his  theoretic  consistency.  Thus  far  Wesley’s  praise 
is  entire;  and  his  polity — the  polity  of  perpetual  aug- 
mentation— went  on  spreading  itself  on  both  sides  the 
Atlantic,  from  the  commencement  to  the  very  close  of  his 
ministerial  life.  And  during  this  long  period  of  more 
than  half  a century,  many  very  critical  conjunctures  were 
encountered  by  him,  and  were  passed  through  success- 
fully. The  thorough  simplicity  and  integrity  of  his  pur- 
pose, as  chief  of  the  body,  so  well  corresponded  with  the 
elementary  simplicity  of  his  views  as  an  institutor,  that 
what  had  been  devised  at  the  first  so  skillfully,  was  to  the 
last  managed  and  governed  not  less  ably. 

But  to  found  a Church  is  another  sort  of  work ; and 
it  v/ould  demand  powers  of  mind,  and  qualifications,  in- 
tellectual and  moral,  quite  of  another  order.  Wesley 
said  of  himself — truly,  not  boastfully— and  his  friends  were 
accustomed  to  say  of  him,  that,  amidst  the  accumulation 
of  his  labors,  he  was  “never  in  a hurry.”  A perfect 
management  of  his  time,  his  untiring  energy,  and  his  self- 
command,  made  it  easy  for  him  to  accomplish  tranquilly 
a vast  and  various  daily  task.  But  if  never  in  a hurry, 
neither  was  he  ever  in  repose.  Movement,  onward  and 


80 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


incessant,  was  the  law  of  his  existence ; but  that  repose 
which,  in  great  minds,  or  in  better  constructed  minds,  is 
the  preparation  for  renewed  action,  implies,  not  merely  a 
cessation  of  movement,  but  a retrocession — a stepping 
back,  and  a looking  around.  Wesley’s  course  gives  no 
indications  of  any  such  reduplication  as  this.  As  there 
was  nothing  of  the  philosophic  quality  in  his  mind,  so  was 
there  little  of  the  ruminative.  Therefore  it  is,  that,  while 
unmatched  in  whatever  has  one  intention^  he  could  have 
held  but  a low  place  as  author  of  a system  which  should 
combine  complicated  impulses,  and  which  should  show  a 
harmonious  interaction  of  them. 

The  work  of  “ Conversion,”  how  genuine  soever  it  may 
be  in  any  instance,  or  however  unexceptionable  in  the 
mode  in  which  it  takes  place,  does  not  develop  the  com- 
pass and  richness  of  Christianized  human  nature  ; nor  is 
it  likely  that  those  who,  as  itinerant  evangelists,  are  con- 
cerned only,  or  chiefly,  with  the  work  of  conversion, 
should  be  much  conversant  with,  or  should  possess  a 
correct  knowledge  of  the  human  heart,  in  the  depth  and 
variety  of  its  range  of  emotions.  Then  this  same  limita- 
tion of  view,  which  was  consequent  upon  the  speciality 
of  the  evangelists’  function,  as  awakener  of  the  con- 
science, brings  with  it  a narrowed  apprehension  of  the 
Christian  system ; anc  the  Bible  comes  to  be  read  and 
used,  mainly,  or  exclusively,  as  the  preacher’s  instrument 
for  effecting  repentance.  But  how  narrow  a view  is  this  ! 

Wesley  made  it  his  boast  (the  word  is  not  here  used  in 
any  sinister  sense)  that  Methodism  was  more  Catholic 
than  any  other  system  of  Christian  combination  that  the 
world  had  ever  seen.  This  was  true ; for  he  required 
from  converts  no  assent  to  a Creed ; — he  stipulated  for 
no  surrender  of  religious  principles  or  notions.  An  ex- 
pressed concern  for  the  “ salvation  of  the  soul”  was  the 
one  and  only  condition  of  entrance,  and  a consistent  ad- 
herence to  such  a profession  was  the  only  “ term  of  Com- 
munion.” This  was  good  ; but  then  this  largely-worded 
invitation  to  enter  the  Society,  was  an  invitation  to  walk 


WESLEY  AS  FOUNDER  OF  AN  INSTITUTE.  Si 

upon  a path  as  narrow  as  a sheep  track  ; and  not  narrow 
in  the  sense  in  which  the  “narrow  way”  is  narrow. 
Methodism  was  straitened  by  the  incomprehensiveness  of 
the  aspect  under  which  it  took  its  view-  of  human  nature, 
and  of  the  social  economy,  and  of  the  Gospel  as  adapted 
to  both.  It  was  further  straitened,  too,  by  some  ill- 
imagined  peculiarites  of  attire  and  of  behavior,  which 
Wesley  afterward  regretted  he  had  not  made  ten  times 
more  peculiar  and  more  stringent  than  he  did.  Strange, 
or  strange  until  we  have  looked  into  the  structure  of  his 
mind,  must  it  seem  that  he  should  have  had  no  conscious- 
ness of  the  deep-seated  incongruity  of  this  Catholic  invi- 
tation, which  was  to  lead  to  the  wearing  a straight-cut 
coat,  or  a close  bonnet  without  trimmings  ! Wesley  did 
not  perceive  that,  while  his  good  sense  forbade  his  im- 
posing upon  his  people  the  style  and  costume  of  Quaker- 
ism in  all  its  rigidness,  and  while  thus  he  he  held  off  from 
his  Institute  some  extremes  of  absurdity,  those  peculiarities 
upon  which  he  did  insist,  and  which  in  themselves  were 
recommended  by  no  valid  reasons,  either  moral  or  re- 
ligious, were  greater  inconsistencies  in  Methodism  than 
the  like,  or  than  much  more,  would  be  in  Quakerism, 
which,  having  neither  a proselyting  nor  a Catholic  inten- 
tion, might  be  as  singular  as  it  pleased,  at  no  greater  cost 
than  that  of  burlesquing  solemn  truths  in  the  view  of  the 
world. 

But  thus  it  is,  and  ever  has  been,  that  those  who  are 
sent  by  Heaven  to  bring  about  great  and  necessary  move- 
ments, which,  however,  are,  after  a time,  either  to  sub^ 
side,  or  to  fall  into  a larger  orbit,  are  left  to  the  short- 
sightedness of  their  own  minds  in  fastening  upon  theii 
work  some  appendage  (perhaps  unobserved)  which,  after 
a cycle  of  revolutions,  must  secure  the  accomplishment 
of  Heaven’s  own  purpose — the  stopping  of  that  move- 
ment. Religious  singularities  are  Heaven’s  brand,  im- 
printed by  the  unknowing  hand  of  man,  upon  whatever 
is  destined  to  last  its  season,  and  to  disappear.  Put  a 
pin  through  the  wick  of  a candle  at  so  many  inches 


82 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


down  as  shall  insure  its  going  out  just  before  sunrise 
has  not  this  been  done,  ordinarily,  by  the  founders  of 
sects  ? The  error  of  attaching  a high  and  religious  im- 
portance to  matters  of  costume,  or  of  conventional  be- 
havior, or  of  worship,  has  drawn  with  it,  as  an  inevitable 
consequence,  the  superannuation,  at  length,  of  the  scheme 
or  system  thus  unadvisedly  distinguished.  The  instances 
will  occur  to  every  reader.  Wesleyan  Methodism  has, 
however,  in  it  so  much  of  wick  and  wax,  that  it  may  prob- 
ably outburn  what  otherwise  would  have  determined  its 
date. 

In  delivering  one’s  self  fairly  into  Wesley’s  Methodism, 
such  as  it  was  sixty  years  ago,  and  in  making  one’s  self,  for, 
a time,  one  with  it,  an  involuntary  feeling  arises  that  there 
is  something  in  the  system,  as  a social  mechanism,  that  is 
out  of  harmony  with  human  nature ; or,  that  there  must 
be  at  the  bottom  of  it  some  misunderstanding  of  Chris- 
tianity. Nevertheless,  when  the  principal  elements  of 
this  Institute  are  singly  brought  under  review,  each  may 
fairly  claim  for  itself  some  warranty  of  scriptural  proofs. 
It  must  be  on  the  ground,  either  of  a semi-infidelity  (if 
indeed  there  can  be  a halving  of  that  which,  where  it 
comes  at  all,  comes  entire)  that  any  one  of  these  prin- 
cipal elements  of  the  Wesleyan  system,  considered  by 
itself,  can  be  excepted  against  or  rejected.  Still  there  is 
a dissatisfaction  remaining  with  us,  standing  as  spectators 
in  the  midst  of  this  economy ; and  in  proportion  as  the 
spectator’s  own  religious  principles  are  fixed  and  deep, 
this  uneasiness  will  be  felt  in  a more  lively  manner.  It 
is  true  that  no  religious  man  could  sit  by  the  side  of  Wes- 
ley’s pulpit,  as  in  the  seat  of  the  scorner,  and  say,  “ fine 
sample  of  enthusiasm  this  !”  nor  would  he  be  willing  to 
put  himself  under  guidance,  such  us  that  of  Southey,  who 
would  divert  this  unquiet  feeling  by  treating  the  perplex- 
ing case  of  Methodism  as  a something  which  is  at  once 
admirable  and  contemptible,  genuine  and  spurious,  sub- 
stantial and  unreal,  and  which  is  “ from  Heaven,”  and 
“of  men.”  No  such  style  of  alternate  approval  and  ban- 


WESLEY  AS  FOUNDER  OF  AN  INSTITUTE.  83 

ter  can  the  serious-hearted  looker-on  and  listener  adopt 
for  himself.  Instead  of  relieving  any  perplexity,  such  a 
mode  not  merely  renders  this  particular  case  the  more 
perplexing,  but  it  breeds  confusion  in  our  own  minds,  and 
it  tends  to  bring  into  peril  our  best  convictions.  It  may 
be  affirmed  that  whoever  has  turned  on  the  heel,  jeering- 
ly,  as  he  has  left  a Methodist  meeting-house,  is  likely  to 
experience  a death-like  qualm  when  he  looks  Christianity 
itself  in  the  face. 

But  how  then  are  we  fairly  to  put  at  rest  that  disquiet 
which  the  spectacle  of  Wesley’s  own  Wesleyanism  gen- 
erates ? To  some  extent  relief  may  be  obtained  by  look- 
ing to  the  evidence,  presenting  itself  on  every  side,  in 
proof  that  this  leading  spirit — the  soul  and  life  of  the 
system— was  not  so  gifted  with  the  reflective  faculties 
as  that  a comprehensive  grasp  of  human  nature  could 
have  been  possible  to  him.  His  earnestness,  therefore, 
and  his  thorough  persuasion  of  the  greatness  and  the  in- 
finite moment  of  the  work  he  had  in  hand,  and  his  per- 
emptory mode  of  thinking,  would  lead  him  to  drive  his 
theory,  with  a reckless  impetuosity,  over  the  inclosure 
of  human  affection.  He  sees,  he  hears,  he  comprehends 
nothing  exterior  to  the  one  object  of  his  errand  in  a world 
of  ungodly  men.  Wesleyanism  did  indeed  effect  a re- 
covery from  sin  and  ruin  for  myriads  of  human  beings, 
and  in  its  triumphant  course  of  benficence  it  “ led  captiv- 
ity captive nevertheless,  in  this  riding  forth  to  conquer, 
there  was  some  destruction  made  of  what  is  genuine  and 
precious. 

But  there  is  a view  of  Wesley’s  ministry,  and  of  his 
COMMISSION,  which  may  consist  with  a serious  belief,  and 
with  a broad  view  of  the  Christian  system.  If  we  are 
willing  to  adhere  to  the  hypothesis  that  Methodism,  aj 
a heaven-directed  movement,  had  a special  purpose,  which 
it  was  to  achieve,  and  that  a season — a term  of  years — wa^ 
marked  out  for  it,  then  it  must  follow  that  those  features 
in  this  system  which  harmonize  imperfectly  with  Chris- 
tianity, receive  an  explanation,  if  not  a justification  ; for  it 


84 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


is  implied  in  the  very  terms  that  what  is  destined  to  effect 
a particular  purpose,  and  which  is  to  pass  away  after  a 
time,  will  not  wear  a universal  aspect,  and  that  it  does 
not  perfectly  coincide  with  that  which  is  enduring  and 
unchanging. 

Not  merely  does  Christianity  recognize  the  social  sen- 
timents, but  it  lays  its  hand  upon  them,  enjoining  social 
exercises  of  devotion,  and  it  forbids  its  professors  to  “for- 
sake the  assembling  of  themselves  together.^’  Neverthe- 
less, the  congregational  aspect  of  the  Gospel  is  not,  as  it 
is  with  Methodism,  the  prominent  characteristic  of  the 
system ; it  was  not  more  than  a single  element  of  apos- 
tolic Christianity ; never  was  it  thought  of  as  the  whole 
of  it.  But  Methodism  congregated  men  upon  centres, 
as  the  whirlwind  brings  things  into  vortices ; and  it  was 
also  a sort  of  whirlwind-agitation  which  kept  them  in 
company ; and  even  after  tempestuous  agitations  had 
passed  away,  it  was  a vehement  cohesion,  rather  than 
a genuine  cementing  of  the  social  mass,  that  was  aimed 
at,  and  actually  effected.  Methodism  seemed  scarcely 
to  be  cognizant  of  any  thing  in  the  divine  life  that  could 
not  be  talked  of,  and  proclaimed  aloud : the  depths  of 
the  human  heart,  when  the  heart  itself  has  come  into 
correspondence  with  the  Infinite  Attributes,  were  beyond 
its  line.  It  might  indeed  take  note  of  things  tossed  up 
from  the  depth  of  the  soul,  by  the  surges  of  passion;  but 
itself  kept  on  the  surface : Methodism  did  not  venture 
into  the  recesses  of  the  soul  further  than  where  the 
tongue  might  be  its  guide. 

And  then,  if  considered  as  a development  of  the  social 
principle,  Methodism  carried  itself  somewhat  shallowly ; 
and  thus  showed  itself  to  be  a system  destined  for  an 
epoch  only.  Wesley,  apostolic  man  as  he  was,  and  hav- 
ing a heart  and  a countenance  warm  and  bright  as  the 
sun  with  genuine  benevolence — an  unselfish,  loving  soul, 
a soul  large  enough  to  fill  a seraph’s  bosom,  himself  knew 
nothing  of  the  domestic  affections.  He  had  never  learned 
human  nature  on  that  bright  side  of  it,  or  in  that  effect- 


WESLEY  AS  FOUNDER  OF  AN  INSTITUTE.  85 

ive  way  in  which  it  is  learned  when  the  yearnings  of  do- 
mestic love  melt  souls  into  one,  so  thoroughly  casting 
down  the  partitions  of  selfish  thought  as  that  each  indi- 
vidual of  the  home  circle  exists  as  if  with  a multiplied 
existence. 

Let  a father,  possessing  a father’s  heart,  be  told,  in  the 
way  of  preparation  for  such  a visit,  that  he  is  about  to  in- 
spect a school  that  was  devised,  and  that  is  governed  by 
one  of  the  most  benevolent  of  the  human  race ; and  then 
let  him  be  taken  to  spend  a four-and-twenty  hours  at 
Kingswood  ! This  father’s  rising  indignation  at  the  iron 
rules  and  the  rigid  absurdities  which  he  there  witnesses, 
may  prompt  him  to  violate  all  charity  toward  the  found- 
er, while  he  spends  his  feelings  in  intemperate  vitupera- 
tion. But  a word  of  explication  may  calm  this  emotion. 
Wesley  knew  no  more  what  a child  is,  what  a boy  is, 
what  human  nature  is,  than  he  might  have  known  if  he 
himself  had  been,  and  had  never  been  any  thing  else  than 
a varnished  anatomy,  lodging  an  intellect  in  a corner  of 
its  cranium. 

If  one  thinks  of  Torquemada,  presiding  at  the  burning 
of  heretics,  and  remembers  that  this  man  called  himself, 
and  was  called,  a minister  of  Him  whose  history  we 
have  in  the  Gospels,  the  prodigious  incompatibility  of  the 
two  ideas  is  such  as  quite  staggers  the  mind.  But  let 
us  not  be  too  hasty  in  thinking  of  the  Inquisitor  as  a 
fiend : perhaps  he  was  such  ; but  perhaps  only  a theorist, 
and  a theorist  is  sometimes  a creature  as  much  to  be 
dreaded  as  a demon : this  man  had  no  consciousness  on 
the  side  of  human  sympathies : in  his  view  it  was  logical- 
ly certain  that  mercy  toward  heretics  themselves,  and  to- 
ward the  world,  demanded  that  he  should  burn  them,  and 
nothing  in  his  bosom  rose  up  to  contradict  this  logic. 

Wesley’s  soul  glowed  with  the  truest  philanthropy;  but 
he,  too  was  a theorizer.  It  was  in  love  that  he  struck  the 
heart  with  the  sledge-hammer  of  his  theological  logic ; 
and  he  brake  the  flint  in  pieces ; but  he  did  not  well 
understand  what  this  same  flint  incloses.  As  he  dealt 


86 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


with  the  boys  at  Kingswood,  so  with  adults  in  his  Socie- 
ties, that  is  to  say,  with  an  iron  intensity  of  purpose  ; and 
human  affections,  in  passing  under  his  hand,  were  much 
damaged,  or  were  forced  into  a half  their  volume. 

Methodism,  such  as  Wesley  made  it,  was  girt  about 
too  tightly,  and  it  has,  in  fact,  necessarily  assimilated 
itself  since  to  those  principles  of  the  social  system  which 
theoretic  men  may  disturb  for  a time,  but  can  not  abro- 
gate ; yet  it  too  much  retains  its  characteristic  as  the 
Christianity  of  the  preacher,  and  of  the  heated  chapel ; 
and  it  is  therefore  deficient  in  those  elements  that  might 
entitle  it  to  be  spoken  of  as  a Church.  How  far  such 
needed  modifications  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  may  al- 
ready have  had  place,  we  are  not  here  called  upon  to  in- 
quire ; much  less  to  hazard  a conjecture  as  to  the  prob- 
able extent  of  those  changes  which  time  and  experience 
may  still  suggest.  All  that  we  have  now  to  do  with  is 
the  fact,  related  as  it  is  to  the  Founder’s  personal  charac- 
ter, that  his  Institute,  such  as  he  left  it,  and  whatever 
praise  it  may  be  entitled  to,  was  a dispensation  for  a 
season,  springing  from  those  qualities  in  his  own  mind 
and  moral  nature  which  fitted  him  to  accomplish  the 
great  work  of  his  day. 

No  mind  and  heart  that  has  ever  attracted  the  eyes  of 
mankind,  is  more  thoroughly  transparent  than  Wesley’s. 
How  is  it  then  that,  like  Loyola’s,  it  can  have  furnished  a 
problem  ? To  read  his  journals  and  letters,  or  his  sermons 
and  polemical  writings,  is  to  come  into  the  presence,  not 
merely  of  a master  spirit,  and  of  one  who  stands  un- 
matched in  energy,  constancy,  consistency ; but  of  a man 
who  was  too  guileless  to  think  of  saving  himself  from  the 
imputation  of  inconsistency,  and  far  too  fervently  intend 
upon  an  object  beyond  himself  to  entertain  any  care 
about  that  semblance  of  egotism,  or  of  ambition,  which 
the  pursuit  of  that  object  could  not  fail  to  impart  to  his 
mode  of  acting — acting  as  he  did  as  the  founder,  propri- 
etor, and  administrator  of  a society  so  widely  extended. 
Why  is  it,  then,  that,  among  those  who  would  wish  to  be 


WESLEY  AS  FOUNDER  OF  AN  INSTITUTE.  87 

thought  his  apologists  (though  not  his  disciples)  he  has 
been  so  spoken  of  as  if  some  mystery  overshadowed  that 
bright  head,  or  as  if  that  countenance,  beaming,  as  it 
does,  with  childlike  love,  was  the  covering  of  an  abyss  ? 
It  has  so  happened  because  the  character  and  the  course 
of  Wesley,  as  of  his  colleagues,  involves  a far  deeper 
problem  than  that  of  the  individual  dispositions  and  mo- 
tives of  the  man. 

The  Gospel — understood  and  bowed  to  in  all  its  depth 
and  height  of  meaning — furnishes  the  only  possible  means 
of  clearing  up  the  perplexities  that  attach  to  the  motives 
and  conduct  of  those  who  from  it  have  received  their 
impulse,  and  who  have  walked  according  to  its  rule. 
Wesley  perplexes  those  only  who,  if  they  would  confess 
the  fact,  are  still  more  perplexed  by  Christianity  itself. 

One  must  believe  that  many  of  that  class  of  persons 
whom  a writer  like  Southey  represents,  and  to  whose 
tastes  and  views  he  evidently  labored  to  adapt  himself, 
must  be  conscious  that  the  explications  he  advances  in 
attempting  to  unravel  Methodism,  are  as  futile  in  philoso- 
phy, as  they  are  false  in  theology ; and,  in  fact,  that  most 
of  his  solutions  of  the  “phenomena”  are  nothing  better 
than  frigid  absurdities.  That  they  were  so,  was  strongly 
felt  by  Coleridge,  whose  far  deeper  acquaintance  with 
spiritual  principles,  and  whose  vastly  more  acute  intelli- 
gence, prompted  him  to  protest,  in  many  instances,  against 
his  friend’s  vapid  arrogance.  And  yet  even  he  turned 
away  from  Methodism,  as  an  enigma  he  had  not  solved 
in  any  manner  that  was  satisfactory  to  himself.  In  fre- 
quent instances,  his  annotation  upon  the  “Life  of 
Wesley,”  was  the  prompting  of  a generous  sympathy, 
and  that  of  indignant  contempt  which  the  flippancy  of 
Southey  provokes.  But  in  his  second,  or  the  note  upon 
his  own  note,  he  gropes  among  the  darknesses  of  psy- 
chology for  what  may  serve  to  bring  about  an  apparent 
agreement  between  himself  and  his  friend.  But  that 
which  these  distinguished  men  undertook  to  do — the  one 
frivolously,  the  other  profoundly — was,  to  give  a reason 


88 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


for  the  bright  greenness  and  the  gay  blossoms  of  May, 
ignoring  the  sun. 

Those,  on  the  other  side,  who,  with  a charitable  in- 
tention, would  labor  to  explain  to  the  class  of  persons 
whom  Southey  and  Coleridge  represent,  how  and  why 
it  is  that  they  so  misunderstand  the  persons  and  events 
of  Methodism,  show,  in  making  this  attempt,  that  they 
have  themselves,  for  the  moment,  lost  sight  of  their  own 
ground.  Human  nature,  with  its  beautiful  adaptations  of 
intellectual  and  moral  forces,  is  explicable  always  with- 
in itself^  even  in  its  lapsed  condition ; — that  is  to  say, 
the  relation  of  its  parts,  one  to  the  other,  or  to  the  whole 
mechanism,  may  always  be  shown  and  demonstrated.  It 
becomes  inexplicable  only  when  it  is  thought  of  in  its  pres- 
ent broken  or  disordered  relationship  to  a higher  economy 
— the  economy  of  Heaven.  Seen  on  this  side,  an  ominous 
darkness  hangs  over  the  human  system  upon  which  no 
earth-born  philosophy  has  ever,  or  can  ever,  shed  one  ray 
of  light. 

So  far  as  Christianity  has  christianized  the  social  sys 
tern,  and  so  far  as  it  acts  as  a good  influence  upon  indi 
vidual  men,  it  is  easily  explicable  ; and  it  is  so  even  if  the 
office  of  professed  candor  be  undertaken  by  a Gibbon. 
But  the  Gospel  itself  is  a truth  of  the  upper  world,  and 
in  its  very  substance  it  w^holly  eludes  the  perceptions 
of  those  who  have  not  bowled  to  it.  From  every  other 
ethical  or  religious  system  Christianity  differs  absolutely 
— in  its  first  principles,  in  its  superstructure,  in  its  tone^ 
in  its  tendency,  and  in  its  issue.  Individually  we  either 
deeply  feel  this  dissimilarity ; or,  if  we  do  not  feel  it,  we 
labor  to  extenuate  whatever  seems  to  declare  it. 

Thus  it  is  that  Wesley  and  Methodism  so  sorely  try 
the  ingenuity  of  those  who,  if  they  knew  how,  would 
gladly  be  just  toward  him,  and  his  communion — saving 
their  “ philosophy.”  This  will  never  be  done  ; nor  can  it 
be  well  to  proffer  aid  toward  effecting  that  which,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  is  impracticable. 

If  he  had  moved  in  a private  sphere,  that  for  instance 


WESLEY  AS  FOUNDER  OF  AN  INSTITUTE. 


89 


of  a parish  priest,  Wesley’s  flock  would  not  have  known 
that  their  minister  had  so  much  as  one  fault ; and  the 
admiration  and  love  of  his  intimate  friends  would  only 
have  been  a more  emphatic  expression  of  the  feeling 
which  would  have  pervaded  the  little  world  whose  happi- 
ness it  was  to  live  within  sight  and  hearing  of  him.  His 
was  a personal  virtue  that  was  not  merely  unblemished, 
for  it  was  luminously  bright.  His  countenance  shone 
with  goodness,  truth,  purity,  benevolence:  a sanctity  be- 
longed to  him,  which  those  near  him  felt,  as  if  i:^  were 
a power  with  which  the  atmosphere  was  fraught.  If  we 
may  imagine — what  could  not  have  been — so  much  energy 
pent  within  a narrow  circle,  how  would  it  have  filled  that 
space  with  abounding  labors  of  evangelic  charity  ! It 
might  indeed  have  happened  that  some  quiet  and  discrim- 
inating parishioner  would  sometimes  whisper  so  much 
fault-finding  as  this — “ Our  dear  Rector  is  too  apt  to  think 
other  people  as  honest  as  himself;  he  trusts  himself  too 
easily  to  any  who  tell  him  a fair  tale ; and  he  is  too  fond 
of  wonders.”  Another,  perhaps,  would  have  asked  leave 
to  think  awhile  before  he  should  assent  to  some  points 
of  the  minister’s  theology.  With  some  such  slender  abate- 
ments as  these,  Wesley’s  praise  would  have  been  warmly 
uttered  by  every  tongue  in  his  neighborhood.  Friends 
would  have  regarded  him  with  a deep  reverential  love  : 
foes — he  could  have  had  none. 

It  is  a sort  of  axiom  with  opticians,  that,  whereas  nat- 
ural objects  (the  works  of  God)  will  bear  enlargement  to 
any  extent,  and  excite  always  the  more  wonder  in  propor- 
tion as  you  apply  to  them,  in  the  solar  microscope,  a 
higher  and  a higher  power;  it  is  otherwise  with  the 
products  of  human  skill,  which,  the  more  they  are  magni- 
fied, the  less  are  they  to  be  admired.  This  illustration 
may  aid  us  a little  in  the  present  instance.  John  Wesley 
— as  to  his  intellect,  and  as  to  his  views — had  his  faults 
and  his  infirmities:  grant  it;  but  we  should  not  have 
known  so  much  as  this  if  what  was  individual  in  him  had 
not  repeated  itself,  and  become  a feature  of  a community 


90 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


that  now  fills  half  the  world.  When  thus  magnified,  each 
ruggedness  or  want  of  finish  on  the  surface  of  his  mind, 
who  can  not  see  it?  as  to  this  or  that  misadjustment  of  the 
intellectual  mechanism,  who  may  not  point  the  finger  at 
it  ? These  things  were  of  the  man  ; but  his  virtues  were 
God’s  own  work,  perfectly  finished — and  how  well  they 
look,  although  the  bright  spectrum  has  spread  itself  out 
to  a diameter  as  wide  as  the  empire  upon  which  the  sun 
never  sets  ! It  was  Wesley’s  virtues  and  piety  that  gave 
form  and  tone  to  his  teaching,  and  his  teaching  has  em- 
bodied itself  in  the  Christianlike  behavior  of  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  his  people,  on  both  sides  the  Atlantic. 


CHARLES  WESLEY. 

As  his  brother’s  friend,  adviser,  and  colleague,  Charles 
exerted  an  influence  that  was  almost  always  corrective 
and  salutary.  Less  credulous  than  John,  less  sudden  in 
his  apprehensions,  and  proportionately  more  discrimin- 
ative and  cautious,  his  mind  reached  its  maturity  earlier ; 
and  this  maturity  was  itself  of  a riper  sort.  But  then 
his  prejudices,  as  a Churchman,  were  less  flexible ; his 
reserve  and  modesty  were  greater,  and  unless  the  supe- 
rior force  of  his  brother’s  character  had  carried  him  for- 
ward beyond  his  own  limit,  he  must  soon  have  with- 
drawn himself  from  public  life ; and  then  he  would  have 
been  known  only,  if  at  all,  as  the  author  of  some  sacred 
poetry  of  rare  excellence.  But  these  very  hymns,  if  the 
writer  had  not  been  connected  with  Methodism,  would 
have  shown  a very  different  phase ; for  while  the  depth 
and  richness  of  them  are  the  writer’s,  the  epigrammatic 
intensity,  and  the  pressure  which  marks  them,  belong  to 
Methodism.  They  may  be  regarded  as  the  representa- 
tives of  a modern  devotional  style  which  has  prevailed 
quite  as  much  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  Wesleyan 
community,  as  within  it.  Charles  Wesley’s  hymns  on  the 


CHARLES  WESLEY. 


91 


one  hand,  and  those  of  Toplady,  Cowper,  and  Newton  on 
the  other,  mark  that  great  change  in  religious  sentiment 
which  distinguishes  the  times  of  Methodism  from  the  staid 
nonconforming  era  of  Watts  and  Doddridge. 

Better  constituted  than  his  brother  for  domestic  enjoy- 
ment, Charles  had  a happy  home,  where  the  gentle  affec- 
tions of  a gentle  nature  found  room  to  expand ; and  it 
was  thus  that  he  became  qualified  to  shed  into  the  Metho- 
distic  world  something  of  a redeeming  influence,  which 
John  could  never  have  imparted.  Charles  Wesley’s  mind 
was  an  ameliorating  ingredient,  serving  to  call  forth  and 
cherish  those  kindlier  emotions  with  which  a religion  of 
preaching — a religion  of  public  services,  so  much  needs 
to  be  attempered.  His  personal  ministrations,  no  doubt  had 
this  tendency  in  some  degree ; but  it  was  by  his  sacred 
lyre,  still  more  than  as  a preacher,  that  he  tamed  the  rude- 
ness of  untaught  minds,  and  gained  a listening  ear  for  the 
harmonies  of  heaven,  and  of  earth,  too,  among  such. 

Ought  not  then  the  disposing  hand  of  God  to  be  ac- 
knowledged in  this  instance,  remarkable  as  it  is,  that, 
when  myriads  of  uncultured  and  lately  ferocious  spirits 
were  to  be  reclaimed,  a gift  of  song,  such  as  that  of 
Charles  Wesley,  should  have  been  conferred  upon  one  of 
the  company  employed  in  this  work?  To  estimate  duly 
what  was  the  influence  of  this  rare  gift,  and  to  measure 
its  importance,  one  should  be  able  to  recall  scenes  and 
times  gone  by,  when  Methodism  was  much  nearer  to  its 
source  than  now  it  is,  and  when  ‘‘Hymn  147,  page  145,” 
announced  by  the  preacher  in  a tone  curiously  blending 
the  perfunctory  with  the  animated, 

“0  Love  Divine,  how  sweet  thou  art!” 
woke  up  all  ears,  eyes,  hearts,  and  voices,  in  a crowded 
chapel.  It  was,  indeed,  a spectacle  worth  the  gazing 
upon  ! It  was  a service  w'ell  to  have  joined  in  (once  and 
again)  when  words  of  such  power,  flowing  in  rich  ca- 
dence, and  conveying,  with  an  intensity  of  emphasis,  the 
loftiest,  the  deepest,  and  the  most  tender  emotions  of  the 
divine  life,  were  taken  up  feelingly  by  an  assembly  of  men 


92 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


and  women,  to  whom,  very  lately,  whatever  was  not  of 
the  “ earth — earthy,”  had  neither  charm  nor  meaning. 

Rugged  forms  were  those  that  filled  the  benches  on  the 
one  hand  ; nor  were  they  the  fairest  in  the  world  that  were 
ranged  on  the  other ; but  there  was  soul  in  the  erect  pos- 
ture when  the  congregation  rose  to  sing,  as  well  as  in  the 
glistening  eye ; and  it  was  a cordial  animation  that  gave 
compass  to  the  voices  of  these,  the  ransomed  of  Method- 
ism. Perhaps  it  was  little  more  than  a particle  of  meaning 
that  some  gathered  from  the  hymn.  But  to  the  hearts  of 
many,  its  deepest  sense — the  poet’s  own  sense  of  the  words 
— was  quite  intelligible,  and  was  intimately  I'elished.  Who 
could  doubt  it,  that  had  an  eye  to  read  the  heart  in  the 
beaming  countenances  around  him?  Thus  it  was  that 
Charles  Wesley,  richly  gifted  as  he  was  with  graces, 
genius,  and  talents,  drew  souls — thousands  of  souls — in 
his  wake,  from  Sunday  to  Sunday,  and  he  so  drew  them 
onward  from  earth  to  heaven  by  the  charm  of  sacred 
verse  ! 

It  may  be  affirmed  that  there  is  no  principal  element 
of  Christianity,  no  main  article  of  belief,  as  professed  by 
Protestant  Churches — that  there  is  no  moral  or  ethical  sen- 
timent, peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  Gospel — no  height 
or  depth  of  feeling,  proper  to  the  spiritual  life,  that  doe? 
not  find  itself  emphatically,  and  pointedly,  and  clearly 
conveyed  in  some  stanza  of  Charles  Wesley’s  hymns. 
These  compositions  embody  the  theory,  and  the  practice, 
and  the  theopathy  of  the  Christian  system  ; and  they  do 
so  with  extremely  little  admixture  of  what  ought  to  be  re- 
garded as  questionable,  or  that  is  not  warranted  by  some 
evidence  of  Scripture.  What  we  have  here  before  us  is 
a metrical  liturgy ; and  by  the  combination  of  rhythm, 
rhyme,  and  music,  it  effectively  secures  to  the  mass 
of  worshipers  much  of  the  benefit  of  liturgical  worship. 
Such  a liturgy,  thus  performed  by  animated  congrega- 
tions, melted  itself  into  the  very  soul  of  the  people,  and  was 
perhaps  that  part  of  the  hour’s  service  which,  more  than 
any  other,  produced  what,  to  borrow  a phrase,  we  might 


CHARLES  WESLEY. 


93 


call  digestive  assimilation.  It  would  secure  this,  its  bene- 
ficial eflect,  in  moulding  the  spirits  of  the  people,  by  its 
iteration,  by  its  emphatic  style,  and  by  aid  of  the  pleasura- 
ble excitements  of  music. 

Charles  Wesley’s  part  in  the  great  results  of  Methodism 
has  not,  perhaps,  been  duly  appreciated.  Let  us  then  look 
to,  and  analyze  the  facts — if  not  as  they  may  now  be  any 
where  observed,  yet  as  they  may  be  remembered  by  some 
of  us. 

In  the  magnificent  amphitheatre  of  Gwenap,  and  at 
other  spots  in  the  mining  districts  of  Cornwall,  the  Wes- 
leys had  drawn  around  them  thousands  of  the  naraxOovLOL 
of  that  wild  region.  What  was  the  intellectual  and  moral 
condition  of  these  dwellers  in  the  heart  of  the  earth,  be- 
fore the  coming  of  Methodism  among  them  ? Is  the  Epis- 
copal Church  prepared  to  make  her  boast  of  the  mining 
population  of  Cornwall,  such  as  it  had  become  under  her 
care  ? But  Methodism  snatched  its  hundreds  and  its 
thousands  from  out  of  this  heathen  mass  ; and  very  soon 
its  unsightly  preaching  houses  speckled  the  dreary  land- 
scape on  all  the  hill  sides  of  the  country  where  there  were 
mines,  and  in  each  of  the  fishing  towns  along  the  two 
coasts.  These  structures,  or  chapels  as  they  came  to  be 
called,  were,  for  the  most  part,  well  filled  on  Sunday, 
with  a people  decently  attired,  more  neat  and  clean  than 
those  of  the  same  rank  assembling  in  other  places  of  wor- 
ship ; quite  orderly  in  their  behavior,  and  among  whom, 
very  rarely,  any  audible  disturbance  of  the  solemni- 
ties of  worship  occurred,  beyond  the  emphatic  “Amen! 
Amen !”  which  served  so  well  to  carry  the  minister  for- 
ward, from  period  to  period  of  his  extemporaneous  prayer. 

In  all  these  chapels,  in  their  turn,  and  in  many  of  them 
scattered  over  the  country,  often  the  officiating  minister 
was  a local  preacher  of  the  district;  and  meagre,  loo 
often,  was  then  the  preacher’s  part  of  the  service  ! The 
sermon  was  indeed  a heavy  trial  of  patience  and  candor 
to  the  casual  visitor;  the  prayer  was  a much  heavier  trial ! 
But  at  the  worst,  the  soul  of  Charles  Wesley — lofty,  ten- 


94 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


der,  pure,  intense,  was  there  present  in  the  hymn;  and, 
like  a summer’s  shower  in  a time  of  drought,  was  this 
hymn  sung,  on  such  occasions,  and  in  such  places  ! The 
preacher  could  at  least  read  it ; and  the  hymn  book  was 
in  almost  every  hand  ; and  enough  of  the  soul  of  music 
was  among  the  people  to  secure  for  the  congregation 
the  benefits  of  a liturgical  worship,  animating,  elevating, 
instructive,  unexceptionable;  and  the  people  were  suffi- 
ciently alive  to  Christian  truth  to  qualify  them  for  taking 
part  in  such  devotional  services  with  pleasure  and  ad- 
vantage. 

If  that  breadth  of  country  be  thought  of,  over  which 
Methodism  had  then  stretched  itself,  far  beyond  the  pro- 
portion of  its  itinerant  ministry,  and  which  it  could  occupy 
in  no  other  way  than  by  its  system  of  irregular  and  unin- 
structed ministrations,  then  it  must  be  to  Charles  Wesley 
that  we  should  assign  the  place  of  honor,  as  the  every 
where  present  soul  of  Methodism.  It  is  true  that  the 
Hymn  Book  is  his  in  part  only ; but  then  his  part  in  it  is 
the  vital  part. 

In  any  system  of  public  worship  the  constant  element — 
that  is  to  say,  the  liturgical — will  always  exercise  a great 
influence  over  the  variable  part — the  extemporaneous — in 
giving  it  tone  and  direction,  and  in  preserving  a doctrinal 
consistency  in  the  pulpit  teaching.  It  will  be  so  at  least 
wffierever  this  liturgical  ingredient  warmly  engages  the 
feelings  of  the  people,  and  where  it  is  performed  with 
untiring  animation.  In  communities  that  have  laid  aside 
liturgies,  in  every  other  sense,  the  Hymn  Book  which  they 
use,  especially  if  psalmody  be  a favored  part  of  public 
worship,  rules,  as  well  the  preacher  as  the  people,  to  a 
greater  extent  than  is  often  thought  of,  or  than  would  per- 
haps be  acknowledged.  The  Hymn  Book,  to  such  bodies 
comes  in  the  stead  of  Creed,  Articles,  Canons,  and  presid- 
ing power.  Isaac  Watts  is  still  held  in  grateful  remem- 
brance by  those  who  use  his  devotional  compositions  : but 
there  may  be  room  to  think  that,  in  the  course  of  these 
hundred  and  fifty  years  past,  he  has  rendered  services  to 


WHITEFIELD. 


95 


them,  in  behalf  of  which  they  have  not  yet  blessed  his 
memory,  and,  perhaps,  may  never  do  so. 

Benefits  the  most  substantial  are  often  those  of  which 
the  least  notice  is  taken ; and  silent  blessings  are  wont 
to  be  silently  received.  Thus  putting  out  of  view  their 
adaptation  to  public  worship,  ‘‘hymns,  and  psalms,  and 
spiritual  songs” — a species  of  literature  in  which  the  En- 
glish language  is  more  rich  than  any  other — administer 
comfort,  excitement,  and  instruction  to  an  extent,  and  in  a 
degree,  which  never  can  be  calculated.  The  robust  in 
body  and  mind,  the  earthly,  the  frivolous,  and  the  sordid, 
know  nothing  of  that  solace,  of  that  renovation  of  the 
heart  which  sacred  poetry  is  every  day  conveying  to  the 
spirits  of  tens  of  thousands  around  them.  It  is  not  merely 
when  sickness  has  slackened  the  cords  of  life,  but  also 
when  the  heart  has  become  benumbed  by  the  toils  and 
cares  of  a common  day,  and  when  even  the  understand- 
ing is  rendered  obtuse,  it  is  then  that  the  hymn  and  psalm, 
at  a late  hour,  restore  the  spirit,  and  give  renewed  clear- 
ness, by  giving  consistency  to  the  distracted  intellect,  and 
so  lead  the  soul  back  to  its  place  of  rest  in  the  presence 
of  “ things  unseen  and  eternal.”  Among  those  to  whose 
compositions  millions  of  souls  owe  inestimable  benefits,  in 
this  manner,  Charles  Wesley  stands,  if  not  foremost,  yet 
inferior  to  few. 


WHITEFIELD. 

Whitefield  must  be  allowed  to  occupy  the  luminous 
centre  upon  the  field  of  Methodism.  Besides  his  personal 
claim  to  this  distinction,  which  we  think  is  clear,  there  is 
a ground  on  which  those  who  would  award  this  position 
rather  to  Wesley,  might  be  content  to  relinquish  it  in  his 
behalf;  for,  if  it  be  true  that  his  ministerial  course  fur- 
nishes peculiar  evidence  of  the  reality  of  the  Gospel  which 
he  preached,  and  of  the  presence  of  Him  who  “ worketh 


96 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


all  in  all” — if  it  be  true  that  Wesley’s  glory  was,  as  one 
may  say,  an  effulgence  of  Christianity  itself,  the  same  may 
more  emphatically  be  affirmed  as  to  Whitefield,  whose 
natural  endowments  w^ere  fewer,  and  whose  success  as  a 
preacher  of  the  Gospel  was  not  less,  perhaps  greater. 

Whitefield’s  natural  powers  and  gifts  were  indeed  ex- 
traordinary ; nor  is  it  known  that  the  same  have  been 
possessed  in  a higher  degree  by  any  one : but  then  they 
w^ere  of  that  sort  which,  if  they  had  been  exercised  in  any 
secular  line,  could  have  won  for  him  nothing  more  than 
an  ephemeral  reputation,  and  its  immediate  worldly  recom- 
pense. His  name  as  an  orator  might  have  found  a place, 
casually,  on  some  page  of  the  annals  of  his  time ; but  no 
faculty  did  he  possess  which  could  have  given  him  a per- 
manent renown  among  the  distinguished  men  of  his  age, 
whether  in  the  senate,  at  the  bar,  or  as  a popular  leader: 
much  less  could  he  have  secured  a lasting  fame  in  the 
w^alks  of  literature  or  science.  But  Wesley  might  no 
doubt  have  earned  a great  reputation  either  in  the  senate 
or  at  the  bar. 

The  endeavors  that  have  been  made  to  give  a sufficient 
reason  for  Whitefield’s  power  over  the  thousands  that 
crowded  around  him — while  the  true  and  the  principal 
reason  is  rejected,  or  is  put  out  of  view — are  quite  futile. 
His  natural  gifts,  although  extraordinary,  were  yet  limited 
in  their  range,  and  were  employed  upon  subjects  that 
move  the  human  mind  from  its  very  depths,  when  they 
move  it  at  all ; but  they  so  move  it  only  when  an  energy 
works  with  the  word  which  no  orator,  however  gifted, 
can  command,  and  which,  again  and  again,  the  most  per- 
fect pulpit  oratory  has  wholly  failed  to  engage  on  its  side. 

If  Whitefield  had  possessed  any  one  of  those  higher 
intellectual  endowments  which  might  be  named  as  an 
adequate  cause  of  the  unexampled  effects  produced  by  his 
preaching,  we  of  this  age  should  be  reading  his  sermons 
wdth  delight ; but  in  fact  they  have  sunk  out  of  all  recol- 
lection— they  are  never  read.  Neither  the  imaginative 
nor  ratiocinative  power  did  he  possess  in  more  than  an 


WHITEFIELD. 


97 


ordinary  degree ; and  as  to  the  fascinations  of  his  voice 
and  manner,  a five  years’  popularity,  if  resting  on  this 
basis  alone,  would  have  been  its  utmost  term.  All  in- 
stances that  might  properly  be  adduced  in  such  a case 
show  this.  But  Whitefield,  with  the  Gospel  message,  and 
that  only  on  his  lips,  drew  thousands  around  him,  go 
where  he  might ; and  he  did  so  from  the  first  year  of  his 
ministerial  career  to  the  very  last. 

Powerful  causes,  wherever  they  are  at  work,  give  evi- 
dence of  their  presence  in  the  continuous  uniformity  of 
the  effects  that  follow  ; and  it  was  a wonderful  uniformity 
of  results  that  attended  Whitefield’s  preaching  throughout 
the  many  years  of  his  ministry,  and  under  every  variety 
of  circumstance.  This  preacher,  occupying  as  he  does  a 
very  narrow  walk  upon  the  field  of  thought,  yet  displays 
there  a mysterious  power.  Inartificial  as  to  the  struc- 
ture of  his  discourses,  all  minds  around  him,  whether  the 
rudest  or  the  most  highly  cultured,  confess  him  to  be  the 
minister  of  God  toward  them.  He  holds  Man,  as  if  in 
the  abstract,  or  as  if  whatever  is  not  common  to  all 
men  were  forgotten.  The  most  extreme  diversities,  intel- 
lectual and  moral — differences  of  rank,  culture,  national 
modes  of  thought,  all  gave  way,  and  ceased  to  be  thought 
of:  distinctions  were  swept  from  the  ground  where  he 
took  his  position.  At  the  first  opening  of  his  lips,  and  as 
the  rich  harmony  of  his  voice  spread  its  undulations  over 
the  expanse  of  human  faces,  and  at  the  instant  when  the 
sparkle  of  his  bright  eye  caught  every  other  eye,  human 
nature,  in  a manner,  dropped  its  individuality,  and  pre- 
sented itself  in  its  very  elements  to  be  moulded  anew. 
Whitefield,  although  singularly  gifted  with  a perception 
of  the  varieties  of  character,  yet  spoke  as  if  he  could 
know  nothing  of  the  thousands  before  him  but  their  im- 
mortality and  their  misery ; and  so  it  was  that  these  thou- 
sands listened  to  him. 

No  preacher,  whose  history  is  on  record,  has  trod  so 
wide  a field  as  did  Whitefield ; or  has  retrod  it  so  often, 
or  has  repeated  himself  so  much,  or  has  carried  so  far  the 

E 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


experiment  of  exhausting  himself,  and  of  spending  his  pop- 
ularity, if  it  could  have  been  spent ; but  it  never  was  spent. 
Within  the  compass  of  a few  weeks  he  might  have  been 
heard  addressing  the  negroes  of  the  Bermuda  islands, 
adapting  himself  to  their  infantile  understandings,  and  to 
their  debauched  hearts ; and  then,  at  Chelsea,  with  the 
aristocracy  of  rank  and  wit  before  him,  approving  him- 
self to  listeners  such  as  the  lords  Bolingbroke  and  Ches- 
terfield. Whitefield  might  as  easily  have  produced  a 
Hamlet  or  a Paradise  Lost,  as  have  excogitated  a sermon 
which,  as  a composition — a product  of  thought,  would  have 
tempted  men  like  these  to  hear  him  a second  time ; and 
as  to  his  faculty  and  graces  as  a speaker,  his  elocution  and 
action,  a second  performance  would  have  contented  them. 
But  in  fact  Bolingbroke,  and  many  of  his  class,  thought 
not  the  hour  long,  time  after  time,  while,  with  much  same- 
ness of  material  and  of  language,  he  spoke  of  eternity,  and 
of  salvation  in  Christ. 

The  same  subjects,  in  the  same  phrases,  held  the  ear  of 
men  in  the  same  manner  from  the  date  of  his  first  sermon 
in  St.  Mary  de  Crypt  to  that  of  his  last  in  New  England 
— a period  of  thirty-four  years.  The  crowds  that  throng- 
ed the  churches  of  Bristol  or  London,  at  his  first  appear- 
ance, were  constituted,  for  the  most  part,  of  the  constant 
frequenters  of  churches  and  meeting-houses,  and  they  were 
persons  upon  whose  thickened  organs  of  hearing  sermons 
enough  had  beat,  from  Sunday  to  Sunday,  from  their  youth 
up.  But  then  from  these  congregations  he  passed  to  Moor- 
fields  and  Kennington  Common,  and  there  found  the  reck- 
less savages  of  civilization: — thence  he  went  to  Kings- 
wood,  where  he  encountered  a ferocity,  wild,  robust,  and 
unused  to  simulate  civility.  From  Kingswood  one  might 
follow  him  across  the  Tweed,  and  find  him  preaching  the 
same  Gospel  in  the  midst  of  a people  too  fully  instructed 
“in  the  right  ways  of  the  Lord’’  to  have  any  thing  to 
learn,  one  might  suppose,  from  this  raw  preacher,  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  “ Solemn  League  and  Covenant,”  and 
who  had  received  episcopal  ordination!  Yet  so  it  w^as 


WHITEFIELD. 


99 


that  alike  noble  wits,  Kingswood  colliers,  and  seceding 
congregations,  broke  down  before  Whitefield  ! Floods 
of  tears  moistened  cheeks,  rough  and  smooth ; and  sighs, 
suppressed  or  loudly  uttered,  gave  evidence  that  human 
nature  is  one  and  the  same  when  it  comes  in  presence 
of  truths  which  bear  upon  the  guilty  and  the  immortal, 
without  distinction. 

The  preacher  of  these  truths,  wielding  a power  mani- 
festly extraneous  to  his  natural  gifts,  thought  little  or  no- 
thing of  those  means  of  effect  to  which  so  much  import- 
ance has  been  attached  by  a certain  class  of  writers.  Or 
if  he  had  at  the  first  thought  of  them,  experience  would 
have  taught  him  that  they  might  be  wholly  disregarded 
Whitefield’s  journals  show  indeed  that  he  had  a feeling 
of  the  grand  and  beautiful  in  nature;  but  he  found  him- 
self, and  his  message,  and  his  hearers,  the  same,  whether 
his  voice  wakened  the  echoes  of  a primeval  forest  in  the 
New  World,  or  resounded  from  the  near  walls  of  an  En- 
glish meeting-house.  Those  whose  sense  of  the  pictur- 
esque is  more  vivid  than  their  moral  consciousness,  have 
labored  with  their  materials  in  endeavoring  to  give  a rea- 
son for  Whitefield’s  power  as  a preacher.  The  magnifi- 
cence of  the  silvan  theatre  in  which  the  gathering  of  the 
people  took  place,  the  stillness,  in  such  a place,  of  a con- 
gregation of  ten  or  fifteen  thousand  persons — the  recollect- 
ed remoteness  of  cities — the  ardors  of  the  climate — the 
interludes,  not  infrequent,  of  the  mighty  thunderings  and 
lightnings  of  that  climate,  and  the  forethought  of  the  many 
perils  to  be  encountered  in  returning  from  the  wilderness  ; 
— shall  not  the  preacher  avail  himself  well  of  these  various 
and  powerful  excitements  ? He  does  so  scarcely  at  all ; 
he  is  unconscious  of  the  place,  the  scene,  the  time ; and 
so  are  his  hearers,  for  eternity  is  opened  up  before  him, 
and  them. 

The  basis  of  Whitefield’s  mind,  or  that  power  upon 
which  his  singular  gifts  as  a speaker  worked,  wa«  the 
coNCEPTivE  FACULTY,  as  related  to  those  objects  that  are 
purely  spiritual,  both  abstract  and  concrete ; and  with 


100 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


him  this  faculty  had  a compass,  a depth,  and  an  intensity 
of  sensitiveness,  never  perhaps  equaled.  So  it  was  that 
while  he  spoke  the  visible  world  seemed  to  melt  away 
into  thin  mist,  and  the  world  eternal — the  real  world — to 
come  out  from  among  shadows,  and  stand  forth  in  awful 
demonstration.  This  faculty  in  him  was  by  no  means 
that  of  the  poet,  or  the  painter,  and  which  is  sensuous  in 
its  material ; for  if  it  had  been  of  this  sort  he  would 
have  left  us  monuments  of  his  genius — such  as  a Divina 
Commedia,  or  a Paradise  Lost,  or  a series  of  Michael 
Angelo  cartoons.  Nor  was  it  a sensuous  perception,  as 
related  to  the  passions  and  affections  of  the  human  bosom  ; 
for  if  it  had  been  of  this  kind  he  would  have  composed 
tragedies,  or  epics.  Nor  was  it  that  faculty  in  which 
Italian  preachers  (and  some  others)  have  excelled,  and 
which  has  enabled  them  so  vividly  to  paint  the  scenes 
and  events  of  sacred  history  as  to  draw  tears,  for  an  hour, 
from  melting  eyes. 

The  objects,  and  almost  the  exclusive  objects  of  this  fac- 
ulty with  Whitefield,  were  those  which  are  in  the  highest 
sense  spiritual ; — the  things  not  of  this  world,  but  of  a 
brighter  region ; — and  yet,  let  us  well  note  it,  not  an  earth- 
made  celestial  apparatus,  or  a scene-painting  of  heaven 
and  hell,  with  its  artificial  illumination,  and  its  mock 
lightning,  and  its  peals  of  mechanic  thunder.  Enough  of 
this  sort  has  been  done  and  attempted  in  pulpits,  and  to 
how  little  purpose  ! Truly  of  such  efforts  of  oratory  it 
may  be  said,  “which  things  perish  in  the  using.”  The 
great  preachers  of  past  times,  whose  sermons  retain  a place 
in  libraries,  produced  surprising  “sensations”  in  churches 
with  little  fruit — out  of  church. 

If  it  had  been  only,  or  chiefly,  the  awful  future — that 
infinite  bf  duration  toward  which  the  brevity  of  this  life  is 
tending — if  it  had  been  only,  or  chiefly,  the  idea  of  im- 
mortality, with  its  alternatives,  which  Whitefield’s  mind 
grasped,  he  must  at  an  early  time,  have  expended  his 
power,  as  to  stated  congregations,  or  within  each  circuit 
of  his  itinerancy.  He  might,  indeed,  have  gone  about 


WHITEFIELD. 


101 


preaching,  with  effect,  a second  or  a third  time,  over  the 
surface  which  he  had  once  visited ; but  not  much  oftener. 
Every  where  fhis  question  and  answer  would  have  been 
heard  among  the  people,  “ Whitefield  is  coming  again, 
will  you  not  hear  him  No,  I have  heard  already  all 
he  has  to  say  about  the  world  to  come.”  How  unlike 
this  was  the  history  of  this  preacher’s  course  from  first 
to  last  ! His  ministrations  were  felt  to  be  as  fresh,  and 
they  took  hold  of  the  minds  of  the  people  as  powerfully, 
when  he  left  England  the  seventh  and  last  time,  for 
America,  as  when  he  left  it  for  the  first  time. 

In  the  wide  compass  of  ideas  and  emotions  among 
which  the  human  mind  takes  its  circuit,  those  things  only 
seem  always  new,  and  those  only  continue  to  exert  over 
it  an  unspent  power,  which  touch  that  element  in  human 
nature  which  itself  is  imperishable — namely,  the  moral 
consciousness.  All  other  things,  bright  as  they  may  ap- 
pear to  be,  fade  ; and,  as  to  each  in  its  turn,  the  mind  sick- 
ens, and  turns  from  it  dissatisfied.  But  it  is  not  so  with 
whatever  bears  upon  the  primary  rudiment  of  human 
nature — the  moral  affections.  By  this,  and  not  by  his 
intellectual  framework,  man  may  be  shown  to  be  im- 
mortal ; for  it  is  on  this  ground  that  he  stands  related 
to  eternal  rectitude.  Christianity  lays  a hand  of  power 
upon  this  moral  consciousness,  and  troubles  it;  but  the 
Gospel,  using  this  word  in  its  own  peculiar  sense,  sheds 
life,  animation,  hope,  where  dismay  had  first  come.  The 
Gospel  brings  before  the  spiritual  sense  a personal  object 
of  love,  adoration,  and  gratitude ; and  as  the  heart  is 
that,  in  human  nature,  w^hich  ‘‘lives  forever”  when  thus 
it  finds  its  immortality  assured,  by  union  with  Him  w^ho 
has  obtained  it  for  his  people,  there  is  no  weariness,  or 
impatience  of  repetition,  while  He  is  spoken  of. 

The  history  of  Whitefield’s  ministry  is,  in  a word,  this 
— the  Gospel  he  proclaimed  drew  men  around  him,  in 
dense  masses,  at  the  moment  when  he  commenced  his 
course;  and  it  was  the  Gospel,  not  the  preacher’s  har- 
monious voice,  not  his  “ graceful  action,”  not  his  fire  as 


102 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


an  orator  that  gave  him  power  over  congregations  to  the 
very  last.  No  intellectual  faculty  of  a high  order  lent  him 
its  aid  in  sustaining  this  popularity. 

Let  those  who  think  they  may  succeed  in  such  an  at- 
tempt undertake  the  task  of  searching  among  things  real, 
or  among  things  which  it  may  be  possible  to  imagine, 
until  they  find  objects  (other  than  those  constituting  the 
Christian  system)  upon  the  ground  of  which  such  a man  as 
Whitefield  could  have  gathered  thousands  around  him — 
keeping  always  close  to  his  topic — and  could  hold  them 
in  his  hand,  time  after  time,  and  could  do  so  through  a 
course  of  four-and-thirty  years. 

If  we  were  to  speak  of  that  phase  of  evangelic  doc- 
trine which  Whitefield,  as  distinguished  from  Wesley  or 
others,  adopted,  it  must  not  be  pretended,  in  his  behalf, 
that  he  reached  his  position  by  any  legitimate  process  of 
induction,  or  that  he  won  it  as  a theologian.  He  came 
into  it  by  a process  more  emphatically  legitimate ; that 
is  to  say,  by  the  simplicity  and  amplitude  of  his  precep- 
tions  of  spiritual  objects.  He  felt,  if  he  could  not  prove  it, 
that  that  sovereign  grace  whence  the  redemption  of  the 
world  took  its  rise,  must  be  the  one  law  of  the  Christian 
system,  and  the  only  principle  of  harmony  among  doc- 
trines, seemingly  antithetical ; and  he  held  that  this  law 
must  be  applicable,  not  merely  to  the  Gospel  abstractedly, 
but  to  each  individual  instance  in  which  it  takes  effect 
upon  the  human  heart.  He  felt  that  this  one  principle, 
as  it  was  the  spring  of  Christianity  itself,  must  neither 
be  abated,  nor  be  made  subordinate  to  exceptive  rules, 
nor  be  subjectea  to  cautionary  restrictions.  It  must  be 
held  entire,  or  abandoned  wholly.  Whatever  those  mis- 
interpretations were  which  might  be  put  by  others  upon 
that  first  principle  of  Christianity — Sovereign  Grace — 
Whitefield’s  childlike  structure  of  mind  compelled  him  to 
exult  in,  and  to  preach  it. 

In  the  same  manner  that  Whitefield’s  ministerial  course, 
sustained  for  so  long  a time — that  is  to  say,  to  the  end — 
can  be  understood  on  no  other  supposition  than  that  of 


WHITEFIELD. 


103 


the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  so  does  that  course,  its  circum- 
stances considered,  yield  incontestable  proof  of  the  purity, 
simplicity,  and  apostolic  genuineness  of  his  character. 

If  a spark  of  ambition,  or  a personal  motive  of  any  sort, 
had  lurked  in  the  bosom  of  the  “stripling  preacher,’’  the 
effect  produced  upon  his  townsmen  by  his  first  sermon  at 
Gloucester  was  enough  to  have  turned  his  head ; or  if 
there  had  been  by  his  side  some  one  to  whisper  in  his  ear 
the  word  of  worldly  wisdom,  Whitefield’s  career  might 
have  been  a brilliant  one — as  the  world  thinks.  Why 
should  it  not  have  been  so  1 He  needed  nothing  but  to 
observe  the  easy  rule  of  moving  always  with  the  tide, 
and  of  feeling  his  way  upward  toward  the  high  places 
of  the  Church.  Or,  if  his  early  triumphs  might  have 
been  attributed  to  accidental  causes,  the  recurrence  of 
the  same  wherever  he  afterward  appeared  made  it  cer- 
tain that  a preacher,  who  was  not  yet  five-and-twenty, 
and  gifted  in  this  extraordinary  manner,  needed  only  to 
husband  his  powers,  and  to  manage  his  popularity;  and 
every  thing  bright  which  the  world  can  offer  was  before 
him.  ® 

Entirely  unlike  this  was  his  actual  history ; and  the 
course  he  did  adopt  at  the  first  moment,  he  pursued, 
without  turning  to  the  right  hand  or  the  left,  from  that 
first  moment,  until  the  day  when,  broken  with  excessive 
labors,  he  said — shall  be  better  and  preach  again  in 
a day  or  two” — and  died.  During  the  months  of  his 
first  popularity — that  is  to  say,  of  his  first  coming  before 
the  world,  the  church  walls  reeked  wherever  he  had 
been  announced  ; and  the  crowds  that  gathered  round 
him,  instead  of  spending  their  feelings,  in  terms  of  heart- 
less admiration,  wept,  each  for  himself,  as  the  preacher 
passed  from  their  sight.  This  popularity^  of  which  there 
had  been  no  example  in  the  Church  (or  out  of  it)  occurred 
in  good  time  to  allow  |jim  to  reconsider  his  purpose  of 
going  out  to  Georgia,  as  a missionary.  Many  reasons — 
most  of  them  plausible,  and  some  of  them  valid — might 
have  been  urged  by  “judicious  friends,”  in  behalf  of  such 


104 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


a reconsideration.  Blame  could  scarcely  have  attached 
to  him,  if  he  had  resolved  to  occupy  the  wide  field  that 
had  now  opened  itself  before  him  at  home.  But  to  his 
missionary  purpose  he  did  adhere. 

Right  or  wrong  in  this  instance,  he  broke  away  from 
the  earnest  entreaties  of  those  whose  hearts  he  had  won  ; 
and  he  went  whither  he  was  carried  by  that  one  motive 
which  ruled  his  life.  So  far  as  this  sovereign  motive 
mingled  itself  with  any  other,  that  other  was  a pure  and 
warm  benevolence.  The  Orphan  House,  with  the  rack- 
ing anxieties  that  attached  to  it,  and  the  perplexities  it 
involved  him  in,  for  many  years,  gave  evidence  of  the 
simplicity  and  unworldliness  of  his  mind.  The  scheme, 
whether  prudently  devised  or  not,  was  the  scheme  of  a 
youth — let  it  not  be  forgotten— who  had  already  dis- 
covered the  secret  of  his  possessing  unmatched  powers 
of  oratory. 

So  far  as  Whitefield’s  ministerial  life  and  his  person- 
al character  may  properly  be  appealed  to  in  support  of 
some  momentous  principles,  the  inference  which  is  thence 
deduffble  is  much  strengthened,  and  is  not  at  all  weaken- 
ed, when  we  take  into  account,  as  well  the  mediocrity 
of  his  intellectual  structure,  as  those  softnesses  of  dispo- 
sition, and  that  laxity  of  tone  of  which  his  letters  and 
journals  give  so  much  evidence.  That  consistent  follow- 
ing of  a high  and  simple  motive  which  marks  his  ministry 
was  not,  as  is  manifest,  the  proper  consequence  of  much 
constitutional  nerve  and  energy.  In  this  instance  we 
have  true  heroism  before  us;  yet  less  than  a hero.  There 
is  greatness — there  is  moral  grandeur;  but  it  is  shown 
in  the  behavior  of  a man  whose  letters  and  private  notes 
are  rendered  wearisome,  if  not  repulsive,  by  a luxurious 
verbosity — a tautology  rarely  relieved  by  any  corusca- 
tions of  mind. 

Nor,  perhaps,  could  a paragraph  be  produced  from 
Whitefield’s  works,  indicative  of  what  might  be  called  a 
philosophic  breadth  of  view  in  relation  to  religion ; yet 
practically,  all  that  such  a breadth  could  imply  was  his 


WHITEFIELD. 


105 


own.  His  ministerial  standing-place  was  always  high 
raised  above  middle  walls  of  partition  ; nor  could  he,  in 
any  instance,  be  induced  to  render  worship  to  the  idols 
of  intolerance  and  bigotry.  As  to  those  partitionments 
within  which  soulless  religionists  are  content  to  be  pen- 
folded,  he  walked  over  them  unconsciously ; nor  could 
he  be  made  to  understand  how  “ precious”  those  things 
were  upon  which  he  thus  trampled.  “ Gentlemen,  I 
hope  you  will  settle  these  matters  to  your  own  satisfac- 
tion,” said  he  among  zealots, — “ my  business  is  to  preach 
the  Gospel.”  But  this  breadth,  this  greatness,  was  not 
with  him  the  product  of  philosophy,  or  the  prompting  of 
a powerful  intellect;  nor  was  it  liberalism,  nor  was  it 
indifference : it  was  the  greatness  of  the  Gospel,  well 
lodged  in  a large  heart. 

The  simplicity  of  his  character,  the  singleness  of  his 
views,  as  well  as  the  rapidity  of  his  movements,  and  the 
superabounding  variety  of  his  engagements,  all  tended  to 
betray  him,  at  times,  into  indiscretions ; nor  was  so  much 
as  one  of  these  slidings  of  his  foot  lost  upon  the  wakeful 
hatred  of  the  world.  But,  like  an  ingenuous  and  meek 
spirited  child,  he  acknowledged  these  errors,  when  they 
were  placed  in  his  view ; and  he  thanked  his  reprovers 
and  then  “ amended  his  ways.”  A nice  and  exact  sense 
of  propriety,  and  a thoroughly  well-bred  feeling  toward 
all  ranks  and  conditions  of  men,  supplied  in  him  the  place 
of  that  sort  of  prudence  which  seldom  goes  hand  in  hand 
with  a burning  zeal  and  a boundless  benevolence.  In 
fact,  Whitefield  did  walk  safely  among  the  many  snares 
of  that  time,  when  the  country  had  not  regained  a settled 
political  condition. 

The  blamelessness  of  Whitefield’s  public  life  is  the 
more  noticeable  when  it  is  thought  of  in  relation  to  that 
quality  in  which  the  contrast  between  himself  and  Wes- 
ley is  the  most  marked.  Not  at  all  inferior  to  his  friend 
in  any  point  of  Christian  morality,  and  with  a personal 
virtue  quite  as  resplendent,  his  spirituality  was — if  the 
phrase  may  be  allowed — somewhat  loosely  garbed.  As 

E* 


106 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


to  the  fervent  affections  of  his  soul,  one  could  not  say 
that  ‘‘  his  loins  were  always  girt  about.’’  Never  is  there 
ground  of  apprehension,  in  following  him,  lest  he  should 
act  in  any  manner  unbecoming  his  professions ; nor,  if 
only  his  sense  of  discretion  be  called  up,  need  it  be  feared 
that  he  will  greatly  misapprehend  his  line  of  duty.  But 
there  is  a feeling,  to  which  perhaps  our  modern  fastidi- 
ousness gives  undue  force,  as  if  the  awful  majesty  of 
things  sacred  was  in  peril  in  his  hands ; or  as  if  feelings 
which  should  be  reverential  always,  v/ere  in  danger  of 
being  compromised  or  damaged  by  his  colloquial  vivacity. 

In  connection  with  the  Methodistic  revival,  or  as  its 
consequence,  there  did  in  fact  come  into  use  a religious 
style  and  tone  which  has  given  occasion,  to  those  who 
have  sought  it,  in  opposing  themselves  to  evangelic  doc- 
trine. In  this  style  there  is  mingled  something  of  an 
overweening  egotism,  something  of  vulgar  levity,  some- 
thing of  the  taste  for  antithesis  and  exaggeration,  some- 
thing of  spiritual  lusciousness ; and  much  that  is  quite  out 
of  keeping  with  the  chasteness,  simplicity,  severity  of  the 
apostolic  writings.  It  does  not  appear  that  to  Whitefield 
mainly  this  faulty  style  should  be  attributed,  as  if  he  had 
been  its  author ; but,  doubtless,  he  had  his  share  in  giv- 
ing it  currency.  There  are  on  record  instances  of  the 
Christian  intrepidity  with  which  he  dealt  with  some  il- 
lustrious persons  ; nevertheless,  his  intimacy  with  titled 
folks  was  not  without  its  effect  in  softening  a little  more 
what  was  soft  in  his  temperament : so  much  sunshine  did 
produce  upon  him  a perceptible  result.  In  him  this  melt- 
ing went  no  further  than  the  surface ; and  its  only  perma- 
nent consequence  was  a vitiation,  to  some  extent,  of  his 
religious  phraseology.  In  other  instances  this  honeyed 
style  became  nauseating,  and  it  has  been  the  source  of 
serious  evils.  A book,  almost,  might  be  filled  with  terms 
and  modes  of  expression  for  which  no  warrant  can  be 
found  in  the  Inspired  V/ritings ; and  out  of  this  factitious 
dialect,  a factitious  Christianism  has  often  sprung.  Yet  it 
may  be  doubted  whether  it  be  possible,  in  the  very  nature 


WHITEFIELD. 


107 


of  things,  to  originate  and  carry  forward  any  religious 
revival,  however  urgently  needed,  and  though  it  be  the 
best  ordered,  without  bringing  into  use  a phraseology  that 
must  differ  in  some  measure  from  that  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures. To  the  stagnant  part  of  a community  within  which 
such  reforms  take  place,  this  artificial  dialect  gives  high 
offense  ; for  with  such  it  is  “ cant.”  It  should  be  the  duty 
of  the  next  age  to  remove  from  religious  parlance  these 
factitious  phrases,  and  to  return  to  a strictly  scriptural 
style. 

But  did  Whitefield  show  any  disposition  to  linger  in 
the  sunshine  of  ‘‘  splendid  auditories  ?”  It  was  far  other- 
wise ; and  his  crossing  the  Atlantic  for  his  last  visit  to 
America,  was  like  his  crossing  it  the  first  time — an  evi- 
dence of  the  purity  of  that  motive  which  had  governed 
his  life.  In  his  fifty-fifth  year,  with  a constitution  so  much 
broken  and  spent,  he  might,  without  blame,  have  accept- 
ed a position  of  honor  and  usefulness  at  home,  along  with 
the  agreeable  excitement  of  moderate  labor.  England 
was  at  his  command,  when  he  left  it  to  return  no  more. 
But  although  the  spring  of  life  was  broken  within  him, 
the  motive  power  was  entire ; and  it  carried  him  on 
through  his  last  weeks  of  incessant  preaching,  as  through 
his  first.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  name  an  instance,  sur- 
passing that  now  before  us,  of  a thorough  uniformity  of 
conduct  and  intention,  held  to  from  the  moment  of  a 
man’s  coming  before  the  world,  to  the  very  last  hour  of 
his  life. 

And  now  is  it  not  time  that  the  world  should  deal 
righteously  with  itself  as  to  its  ancient  quarrel  with  one 
like  Whitefield  ? The  wwld  has  a long  score  to  settle  in 
this  behalf,  for  it  pursued  him,  from  first  to  last,  with  a 
fixed  and  furious  malignity ; and  even  now,  where  Wes- 
ley is  spoken  of  with  fairness,  and  perhaps  with  commen- 
dation, a line  of  reluctant  praise,  coupled  with  some  un- 
gracious insinuation,  is  the  best  treatment  Whitefield  can 
obtain  after  he  has  been  eighty  years  in  his  grave ! No 
one  can  dare  to  say  that  his  life  was  not  blameless ; and 


108 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


that  his  intentions  were  benevolent  is  manifest.  His  tem- 
per was  not  arrogant;  for  meekly  he  received  rebuke, 
and  patiently  he  endured  so  many  revilings.  It  was  with 
the  courage  of  a noble  nature  that  he  confronted  vio- 
lence ; and  with  the  simplicity  of  a child  that  he  for- 
gave injuries.  Yet  among  those  who  by  their  flagitious 
vice  and  outrageous  crimes  have  the  most  deeply  sinned 
against  society,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a wretch 
upon  whose  guilty  pate  has  been  showered  so  much  ran- 
corous abuse  as,  year  after  year,  was  heaped  upon  the 
head  of  the  love-fraught,  self-denying,  and  gentle-natured 
Whitefield.  There  is  a mystery  here  which  “philosophy^^ 
should  do  its  best  to  clear  up ; or  not  succeeding  in  this 
endeavor,  should  ingenuously  acknowledge  that  as,  on 
the  one  hand,  it  can  give  no  intelligible  account  of 
Whitefield’s  motives,  so  neither  can  it  show  reason  for 
the  world’s  hatred  of  him. 


FLETCHER. 

The  justly  venerated  name  of  Fletcher  of  Madeley 
brings  into  prominence,  in  a peculiar  manner,  what  w^e 
have  assumed  to  be  the  true  idea  of  Methodism — namely, 
that  it  was  a divinely  appointed  development  of  the  Gos- 
pel— temporary  in  its  purport,  although  fraught  with  mo- 
mentous ulterior  consequences.  Methodism,  in  the  rise 
and  progress  of  which  we  trace  and  reverently  acknowl- 
edge the  hand  of  God,  it  is  not  easy  to  regard  as  the 
origination  of  what  could,  in  that  form,  be  permanent. 

One  must  be  resolved  not  to  see  a providential  inten- 
tion in  the  Methodistic  movement,  if  it  is  not  to  be  recog- 
nized in  the  singular  adaptation,  one  to  the  other,  of  its 
principal  agents.  This  company  of  men  neither  fashioned 
themselves  individually  for  their  work  ; nor  did  any  one 
of  them  select  his  colleagues  as  the  men,  among  others, 


FLETCHER. 


109 


that  were  best  qualified  to  assist  him  in  carrying  out  his 
scheme.  If  Wesley  had  chosen  his  own  Whitefield,  that 
Whitefield  assuredly  would  not  have  been  the  preacher 
of  “ election but  would  have  been  one  as  peremptory 
as  himself  in  adhering  to  a single  rudiment  of  truth  ; or 
if  the  master  mind  had  looked  around  for  one  who  should 
be  qualified  as  a writer  to  make  good,  to  defend,  and  to 
consolidate  Wesleyan  theology,  and  to  hand  it  down  as 
an  impregnable  scheme  of  doctrine  to  posterity,  Fletchei 
would  not  have  been  his  choice. 

Nevertheless  he  was  the  very  man — now  we  may  see 
it — who  was  well  qualified  for  the  part  he  actually  took  in 
the  Methodistic  dispensation that  is  to  say,  to  write 
attractive  books  that  could  not  fail  to  be  read  by  thou- 
sands during  the  years  in  which  they  were  needed,  but 
which  would  not  be  read,  after  that  season,  by  a creature. 
The  Checks  to  Antinomianism”  did  their  office ; and 
they  have  done  it ; for,  in  theological  literature,  they  now 
hold  no  place. 

Even  Whitefield’s  preaching,  and  if  there  had  been 
none  of  a more  exaggerated  sort,  needed  a counteraction, 
a drag  on  the  wheel.  But  among  those  who  followed  in 
the  same  track,  or  who  started  independently  at  the  same 
time,  there  were  several  who,  with  far  less  simplicity  of 
soul,  distinguished  themselves  by  a prurient  grossness  of 
taste,  by  an  eager  pursuit  of  exaggeration  and  paradox ; 
or  by  a temper  which  may  justly  be  designated  as  fanat- 
ical (because  involving  some  element  of  malignity)  and 
who  would  not  fail  to  put  upon  Calvinistic  theology  a 
guise  that  must  render  it  an  object  of  mockery  or  of 
loathing  to  the  world,  and  of  alarm  and  reprehension  to 
the  seriously  minded.  To  repress  this  exuberance,  to 
redress  this  grievance,  and  to  put  to  shame  those  who 
had  thus  outraged  religious  propriety,  Fletcher  came  for- 
ward, under  Wesley’s  auspices.  He  was  fitted  for  this 
task,  by  the  warmth  of  his  religious  sentiments,  by  the 
acknowledged  purity  of  his  personal  character,  by  the 
Christian  meekness  of  his  temper,  by  his  humility,  fervor, 


110 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


and  love.  As  a theologian  he  possessed  acquaintance 
enough  with  doctrinal  literature  and  with  the  Scriptures, 
to  give  him  always  a point  or  two  of  advantage  in  rela- 
tion to  his  antagonists ; but  he  was  no  such  reasoner,  he 
was  no  such  master  of  biblical  criticism,  as  might  have 
made  it  possible  for  him  to  overstep  the  limits  of  his  ap- 
pointed task,  or,  as  a theological  writer,  to  survive  his 
day.  As  a writer  he  held  a fluent  pen:  with  much 
vivacity,  and  with  some  faculty  of  appropriate  illustration, 
he  possessed  that  happy  art  of  diffuseness  which,  while  it 
does  not  send  the  reader  to  sleep,  so  dilutes  the  meaning 
of  each  page  as  serves  to  adapt  it  well  to  the  feeble  as- 
similative powers  of  the  class  of  minds  for  which  it  was 
prepared.  Any  one  who  is  accustomed  to  read  by  a 
process  of  abbreviation,  might  easily  make  himself  master 
of  the  entire  meaning  which  Fletcher  wire-draws  over  a 
hundred  pages  ; and  if  he  be  skillful  in  catching  the  one 
hinging  sentence  of  each  page,  all  going  before,  and  com- 
ing after,  may  safely  be  disregarded. 

We  should  be  assigning  to  Fletcher  far  too  high  a 
place,  as  a writer,  if  we  were  to  affirm  that  his  reasoning 
is  sophistical ; for  in  fact  he  does  not  reason,  nor  could 
he  do  so.  What  he  brings  together,  are  not  consecutive 
propositions,  but  pointed  instances  and  illustrations,  some- 
times appropriate,  but  even  then  not  conclusive  in  argu- 
ment; and  often  they  are  wholly  inappropriate,  as  well 
as  inconclusive.  Often  they  are  such  as  needed  only 
a little  re-dressing  to  be  brought  to  bear  with  effect 
against  his  own  doctrine.  With  an  understanding  infe- 
rior to  Wesley’s,  he  was  better  fitted  to  his  line  of  labor 
in  this  respect — that  he  could  go  on  in  the  mode  of  cumu- 
lative argumentation,  without  at  any  stage  bringing  out 
in  a tangible  manner,  the  inconclusiveness  of  the  whole ; 
whereas  Wesley,  in  that  strict  and  categorical  style 
which  he  adhered  to,  was  continually  in  danger  of  break- 
ing up  his  own  sophisms.  Fletcher  was  always  safe  in 
his  cork-lined  skiff,  among  the  breakers,  and  riding  high 
upon  foam,  v/here  V/esley  would  have  run  upon  the  rocks. 


FLETCHER. 


Ill 


Personally,  Fletcher  of  Madeley  deserved  all  that  warm 
affection,  and  that  admiration  of  which  he  was  the  object 
in  his  circle ; but  while  it  is  difficult  to  find  parallels  to 
Wesley  or  Whitefield,  in  the  catalogue  of  Christian  wor- 
thies, he  stands  as  one  of  a class  which,  if  not  very 
numerous,  has  not  been  the  most  rare.  In  a genuine 
sense,  he  was  a saint — a saint  such  as  the  Church,  of 
every  age,  has  produced  a few  samples.  Sanctity  and 
purity  of  manners  were  his  distinctive  characteristic  : an 
attenuated  temperament,  and  feeble  constitution,  atten- 
uated the  more,  from  year  to  year,  under  the  discipline 
of  ascetic  notions,  rendered  him  as  unearthly  a being  as 
could  tread  the  earth  at  all.  And  then  if  he  seemed  but 
as  a shadow  bodily,  an  overdone  style  of  self-abasement 
—a  humility,  the  expression  of  which  inflicts  positive 
suffering  upon  those  who  must  listen  to  it,  placed  him 
too  far  beyond  the  range  of  ordinary  sympathies.  It  is 
seldom  that  an  Englishman-born  is  heard  to  exagger- 
ate modesty  in  the  style  which,  to  Jean  Guillaume  de  la 
Flechere,  had  become  habitual.  Perfectly  assured  as  one 
is  of  this  good  man’s  Christian  integrity,  and  of  his  em- 
inence in  every  virtue,  it  is  a species  of  torture  to  read 
those  letters  of  his,  in  which  the  bathos  of  lowliness 
quite  exhausts  all  powers  of  language.  This  mistaken 
style  often  finds  imitators  among  those  who,  in  adopt- 
ing, for  themselves,  such  terms  of  abasement,  do  not  go 
so  far  wrong  as  they  would  wish  the  world  to  suppose. 

Among  the  principal  persons  of  the  Methodistic  move- 
ment every  thing  (so  far  as  human  infirmity  admits)  was 
genuine  and  sincere ; but  there  was  much  that  had  not 
been  considered  in  its  consequences.  Whitefield,  as  we 
have  said,  opened  a vein  of  English — luscious  and  collo- 
quial, which,  as  flowing  from  the  lips  and  pens  of  his  imi- 
tators, would,  if  it  had  not  met  correction,  have  covered 
Calvinistic  Methodism  with  an  offensive  and  pestilential 
deposit.  On  the  other  hand — the  Wesleyan  side — there 
meets  the  eye  an  expanse  of  fragmentary  verbosity — dry 
and  friable,  and  of  which,  as  one  of  its  originators,  Fletch- 


112 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


er  must  be  named*  To  any  one  who  might  be  capable 
of  such  a task,  we  should  much  rather  recommend  the 
writing  a book  of  his  own;  otherwise  one  so  qualified 
might  give  to  our  religious  literature  a serviceable  com- 
pendium within  the  compass  of  a hundred  pages,  which 
should  embody,  in  a biblical  and  logical  sense,  the  entire 
substance  of  the  ten  volumes  of  Fletcher’s  works.  What 
this  copious  writer  has  to  say,  might  soon  be  said ; and 
in  truth  it  is  little  more  than  this,  that,  throughout  the 
Inspired  Writings,  men  are  dealt  with  by  their  Maker, 
their  Judge,  and  their  Saviour,  such  as  we  all  feel  and 
know  ourselves  to  be ; — that  is  to  say,  suasible,  account- 
able, and  free ; and  not  such  as  theological  theorists,  or 
as  metaphysical  sophists,  or  as  some  popular  declaimers, 
catering  to  a debauched  taste  for  paradox  and  exaggera- 
tion, have  pictured  men  to  be.  This  is  nearly  the  whole 
pith  of  the  “Checks  to  Antinomianism.”  But  Fletcher 
had  not  grasped  that  key  of  biblical  interpretation  which 
allows  the  devout  and  ingenuous  reader  of  the  Scriptures 
to  possess  and  to  enjoy  principles,  among  and  between 
which  the  connection  of  abstract  consistency  can  never 
be  traced,  or  at  least  has  not  hitherto  been  laid  open.  If 
a simple  and  reasonable  question  could  have  penetrated 
so  far  as  to  the  still  interior  of  this  good  man’s  heart  his 
answer  to  it  might  have  been  followed  by  his  drawing 
the  pen  through  very  many  pages  of  what  he  had  written 
in  attempting  to  botch  up  a sort  of  consistency  for  his 
own  theology.  This  question  would  be  of  this  sort,  “ If 
Antinomianism  were  quite  gone  and  forgotten,  would 
Arminian  theology  give  you  entire  contentment?”  One 
might  answer  for  Fletcher  that  he  would  in  that  case 
have  gladly  dismissed  it,  as  a man  returning  to  health 
and  appetite  rejects  the  meagre  diet  that  had  been  im- 
posed upon  him  by  his  physician.  But  he  wrote  his 
“ Checks”  with  a feeling  like  that  of  those  empirics  who 
labor  to  convince  us  that  animal  food  is  poison,  that 
vegetable  substances  are  much  to  be  suspected,  and  that, 
in  fact,  nothing  is  quite  safe  for  the  stomach  but  medicine. 


FLETCHER. 


113 


Nevertheless,  Fletcher  most  usefully  and  ably  dis- 
charged his  function  as  Wesley’s  polemical  attendant  and 
champion  ; and  his  writings  had  great  influence,  no.  doubt, 
in  waking  up,  and  in  calling  into  exercise,  that  right-heart- 
ed good  sense  which  is  a characteristic  of  the  English 
mind,  and  to  which  some  few  demagogues  and  fanatics  in 
Whitefield’s  train  were  then  doing  much  wrong.  It  is 
long  since  this  good  sense  and  better  religious  feeling  has 
swept  the  religious  field  nearly  clear  of  those  Antinomian 
paradoxes  which  sprang  out  of  the  Methodistic  heat.  A few 
notorious  preachers  and  obscure  writers,  whose  names 
it  is  a happiness  to  forget,  rendered  perhaps  a more  ef- 
fective service  than  even  Fletcher  and  his  “ Checks,”  to  the 
severity  of  Christian  truth,  while  they  were  doing  their 
utmost  to  dress  up  their  corrupt  theology  in  a harlot’s 
attire ; for  the  best  check  to  Antinomianism  is  given  by 
those  w^ho  themselves  are  held  in  check,  neither  by  the 
fear  of  God,  nor  any  sense  of  shame  in  giving  utterance 
to  their  absurdities. 

Fletcher’s  part  in  that  unedifying  controversy  which 
sprang  out  of  the  Minutes  of  Conference  for  1770,  while 
it  consists  well  with  his  repute  as  an  eminently  holy,  con- 
scientious, and  peace-loving  man,  brings  to  view  a feat- 
ure of  Methodism  which  will  demand  further  attention — 
we  say  a feature  of  Methodism ; for  although  the  same 
appearances  have  attached,  in  greater  or  less  degrees,  to 
all  seasons  of  religious  excitement,  yet  in  this  instance 
there  is  observable  a marked  sequence  of  causes  and 
effects.  Little  thinking,  or  thinking  not  at  all,  of  what 
must  inevitably  be  the  consequence  when  the  style  they 
indulged  in  should  reach  the  rude  mind  of  the  people,  and 
be  imitated  by  the  false  and  the  foolish,  some  of  White- 
field’s  followers — Berridge  by  eminence — so  wrote,  one  to 
another,  and  so  penned  their  journals,  and,  too  often,  so 
preached,  as  if,  in  their  minds,  there  had  been  resident  a 
very  faint  consciousness  of  the  infinite  perfections  and 
majesty  of  Him  with  whom  man  has  to  do.  What  it  is 
usual  to  call  the  natural  attributes  of  God,  and  of  which 


114 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


the  Inspired  Writers  never  lose  their  recollection,  had, 
with  some  of  these  good  men — or  so  it  seemed — fallen  out 
of  place,  or  had  got  beyond  the  range  of  their  vision. 
When  blasphemy  assails  the  ear,  the  blood  curdles ; but 
it  is  even  a deeper  and  a more  lasting  distress  that  is  en- 
dured when,  from  the  lips  and  pens  of  religious  persons, 
there  flows  a copious  irreverence,  an  indecent  easiness,  a 
flippant  buffoonery,  in  the  utterance  of  which  before  the 
world,  the  religious  sentiment  in  all  men’s  minds  is  out- 
raged, in  a manner  which  no  mere  blasphemy  can  effect. 
Extremes,  such  as  these,  were  not  reached  by  any  of  the 
leading  preachers. 

These  abuses  had  attached,  principally,  to  the  Calvin- 
istic  side  of  Methodism.  Wesley’s  firmer  tone  of  mind, 
and  the  brighter  complexion  of  his  feelings,  held  him 
exempt  from  all  such  exorbitances ; and  so  was  it  Vv^ith 
Fletcher;  nevertheless,  a reverberated  influence  from 
faults  which  they  themselves  avoided  and  abhorred, 
affected  them  also,  when  they  were  drawn  into  contro- 
versy. As  to  their  opponents,  it  was  only  according  to 
the  ordinary  course  of  things  that  men  who,  in  a time  of 
love  and  fervor,  fell  into  a style  of  luscious  irreverence, 
should,  when  roused  by  controversy,  and  when  irritated, 
exchange,  in  a moment,  honey  for  venom.  The  sudden- 
ness of  the  change  is  startling ; but  it  is  not  in  fact  won- 
derful, for  it  is  quite  in  human  nature. 

Fletcher,  although  his  style  had  shown  much  of  what 
was  overdone,  did  not  at  any  time  render  himself  offens- 
ive in  the  way  that  had  become  characteristic  of  some 
of  the  Calvinistic  preachers ; nor  did  he,  when  he  rushed 
into  controversy,  fall,  as  did  his  assailants  and  opponents, 
into  virulent  and  rancorous  buffoonery.  The  reaction 
upon  himself,  and  so  upon  Wesley,  was  to  hurry  him 
beyond  the  limits  of  religious  propriety  in  giving  his 
portraiture,  or  caricature,  of  Calvinistic  Antinomianism. 
Wesley  had  set  a very  bad  example  in  his  noted  apostro- 
phe to  the  Devil,  and  Fletcher  made  an  ill  use  of  this 
pattern.  He  and  his  friend  seemed  unconscious  of  the 


FLETCHER. 


115 


awful  risks  that  are  incurred  by  those  who  indulge,  as  he 
so  often  did,  in  this  species  of  rhetoric.  Nothing  can  be 
of  worse  consequence,  in  controversy,  than  to  paint  the 
Devil,  and  then  to  say  to  an  antagonist — “There  ! that  is 
your  god  f’  What  place  will  there  be  left  in  the  minds 
of  men  for  any  religious  reverence,  when  the  same  im- 
propriety comes  to  be  retorted,  and  when  thus,  between 
the  combatants,  the  entire  disc  of  the  sun  has  been  black- 
ened ? Fletcher’s  antagonists  in  this  controversy  (one 
does  them  an  office  of  love  in  avoiding  to  name  them) 
wrote  in  a style  which  involves  its  own  antidote : of- 
fensive beyond  endurance,  it  is  quickly  forgotten ; and 
so  Fletcher’s  “Checks”  are  by  this  time  forgotten;  yet 
through  a longer  course  of  time  they  wrought  a real, 
although  indirect  mischief,  for  within  the  Wesleyan  pale 
they  continued  to  shut  out  the  light,  both  of  charity  and 
of  Scriptural  doctrine ; the  mass  of  the  people,  and  even 
the  preachers,  taking  Fletcher’s  word  for  it,  religiously 
believed  that  the  contrary  of  the  Wesleyan  theology  was 
a worship  not  much  better  than  that  of  the  Principle  of 
Evil. 

This  ill-conducted  controversy,  which  did  not  redeem 
itself  by  calling  forth  so  much  as  one  accomplished  theo- 
logian, or  by  giving  birth  to  so  much  as  one  book  v/hich, 
in  itself,  is  now  worth  the  reading,  not  only  broke  the 
force  of  Methodism  as  related  to  the  open  irreligion  of 
the  times,  but  it  turned  off  a thoughtful  and  favorable  re- 
gard toward  it,  in  the  instance  of  many  whom  it  had 
nearly  won. 

And  yet  how  uncharitably,  or,  let  us  rather  say — for 
we  ask  no  indulgence  on  this  ground — how  incorrectly 
and  unphilosophically  should  we  think,  even  of  those  who 
sinned  the  most  egregiously  in  this  controversy,  if  we 
were  to  take  our  idea  of  them,  personally,  from  their  own 
pens ! As  to  Fletcher  indeed  we  might  very  safely  do 
so,  for  his  worst  offenses  arose  only  from  that  bad  taste 
which  the  slender  build  of  his  mind  allowed  him  to  fall 
into.  Great  intensity  of  feeling  he  had,  but  little  depth ; 


116 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


some  elevation,  but  no  soaring — no  grandeur — no  grasp 
of  general  principles.  The  most  unseemly  things  he 
could  coolly  write,  much  in  the  way  in  which  the  blind 
sometimes  trample  innocently  over  things  that  are  sacred 
and  precious.  Intending  every  thing  that  is  right  and 
pious,  this  good  man  makes  the  blood  run  cold  while, 
with  an  apparent  insensibility,  or  unconsciousness  of 
what  is  due  to  the  awful  realities  before  him,  he  accumu- 
lates illustrations,  showing  the  blasphemous  import  of  his 
adversaries’  doctrine.  It  is  consolatory  to  believe — as 
we  justly  may — that  nothing  so  unwise  and  unseemly 
would  now  be  tolerated,  or  even  attempted,  in  religious 
controversy. 

Whatever  service  Fletcher  may  be  thought  to  have 
rendered  to  Wesley,  as  a controversial  writer,  a far  more 
important  and  more  lasting  benefit  was  conferred  upon 
Methodism  by  his  holy  conversation,  and  his  laborious 
course,  as  a Christian  man,  and  a parish  minister.  Made- 
ley  has  been  shedding  a lustre  upon  Methodism  now 
these  hundred  years.  It  is  true  that  the  books  which 
thence  issued  may  well  rest  in  their  oblivion ; but  the 
virtues  which  there  bloomed  and  bore  fruit,  are  of  immor- 
tal fame,  and  this  fame  is  not  merely  that  of  the  man  in- 
dividually, but  it  is  fairly  the  property  of  the  community 
in  the  bosom  of  which  he  was  reared,  lived,  and  died.  If 
it  be  asked  what  this  Methodism  is,  about  which  the 
world,  even  now,  has  come  to  no  settled  opinion,  an 
equitable  reply,  inclusive  even  of  some  Methodistic  mis- 
takes, may  be  obtained  by  any  honest  inquirer — at  Made- 
ley.  The  Methodism  of  Fletcher  was  Christianity,  as 
little  lowered  by  admixture  of  human  infirmity  as  we 
may  hope  to  find  it  any  where  on  earth. 


COKE. 


117 


COKE. 

The  position  we  have  ventured  to  take,  namely,  that 
Methodism  was  “from  Heaven,’’  receives  its  confirmation 
in  two  modes  in  each  separate  instance,  when  we  look  to 
its  first  movers ; for  there  then  becomes  manifest  at  once 
the  peculiar  fitness  of  each  to  accomplish  his  destined 
work,  and  also  the  disproportionate  vastness  of  the  result, 
when  we  think  of  it  as  related  to  the  natural  powers  of 
the  agent.  This  kind  of  proof,  coming  in  as  it  does  from 
opposite  directions  to  bear  upon  the  same  conclusion,  is 
the  characteristic,  as  of  other  religious  movements,  yet  in 
none  so  remarkably  as  in  the  Methodistic  revival ; and 
among  its  instances  of  this  order,  that  of  Coke  is  as  sig- 
nificant as  any. 

Rightfully  called  an  “ apostolic  man,”  and  the  father  of 
the  Wesleyan  Missions,  and  so  the  originator  of  a work 
which  has  been  incalculably  beneficial,  one  might  wish 
to  think  of  him  rather  in  the  vagueness  of  an  imaginary 
personality,  than  precisely  according  to  the  un-heroic 
truth  of  his  individual  form  and  style.  And  it  might  be 
better,  too,  to  have  heard  of  him,  as  an  unwearied  and 
successful  evangelist,  than  to  have  listened  to  him,  as  ad- 
dressing a home  congregation,  in  his  own  formal,  oper- 
ose,  and  iterative  manner.  We  might  say,  let  the  man 
be  measured  by  the  extent  of  his  achievements ; but  it  is 
better  to  say — and  he  himself  would  so  have  said — let  the 
Wesleyan  Coke  be  thought  of  as  the  honored  servant  of 
God,  faithful  in  the  employment  of  the  gifts  that  were 
intrusted  to  him,  these  gifts  being  such  as  well  fitted  him 
for  his  part ; and  yet  wholly  insufficient  if  named  as  the 
proper  causes  of  his  success. 

Absolute  devotion  to  his  one  object,  a devotion  which 
spared  nothing  of  personal  welfare,  or  ease,  or  fortune,  or 
worldly  repute,  was  Dr.  Coke’s  distinction.  As  to  the 
entireness  of  this  devotedness,  he  was  not  inferior  to 


118 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


Wesley,  or  to  Whitefield,  or  to  Fletcher;  and  the  sacri- 
fices he  thus  willingly  offered  to  God  included  more  than 
had  been  surrendered  by  any  other  of  the  founders  of 
Methodism.  The  “ all  things”  which  he  accounted  as  dross 
for  Christ’s  sake,  embraced  the  materials,  or  the  means 
of  obtaining,  whatever  is  most  desired  and  sought  after 
by  mankind.  On  behalf  of  Xavier  there  may  fairly  be 
claimed  the  praise  of  having  sacrificed  himself — his  rare 
talents,  his  personal  advantages,  and  an  unquestionable 
career  of  ambition  at  home,  to  the  high  purposes  of  Chris- 
tian benevolence.  But  then,  beside  his  zeal  and  devoted- 
ness, Xavier’s  soul  was  large  as  a hero’s  soul  could  be. 
He  was  borne  to  the  Fiast  as  on  the  eagle’s  wings  of  an 
innate  and  boundless  ambition,  which,  on  any  other  course, 
might  have  carried  him  to  the  pinnacle  of  power  or  fame 
— political,  military,  or  sacerdotal.  Can  any  thing  of  this 
sort  be  alleged  as  to  Dr.  Thomas  Coke  ? It  does  not 
appear  that  the  “ high  destiny”  sentiment  had  any  lodg- 
ment in  his  bosom.  It  would  be  doing  him  in  every 
sense  a wrong,  to  paint  him  as  one  of  the  giants.  His 
habits  and  his  consciousness  as  a gentleman,  and  as  a 
man  of  fortune,  and  as  a scholar  and  clergyman,  gave  him 
an  air  which,  in  all  positions,  saved  his  diminutive  and 
rotund  person  from  contempt.  His  ardor,  his  disinter- 
estedness, his  courage,  his  devotedness,  which  were  al- 
ways conspicuous,  secured  him,  in  most  instances,  a fair 
treatment  from  the  world.  But  beyond  this — that  is  to 
say,  all  the  impress  of  power  and  greatness  attaching  to 
this  evangelist’s  character  and  course,  and  to  the  work 
he  accomplished — was  the  greatness  and  the  power  of 
the  Gospel  which  he  preached,  and  of  the  Divine  energy 
that  went  with  him. 

Not  to  speak  of  the  important — the  indispensable  serv- 
ices that  were  rendered  to  the  Wesleyan  community  at 
home,  that  is  to  say,  throughout  England  and  Ireland, 
by  Dr.  Coke,  as  Wesley’s  second  and  representative,  and 
which  no  other  clerical  minister  in  his  service  was  at  all 
qualified  to  aflford,  it  was  he,  if  not  absolutely  as  the  ear- 


LADY  HUNTINGDON. 


lid 


liest  instrument,  yet  as  immeasurably  the  most  efficient, 
that  carried  organized  Wesley anism  across  the  Atlantic, 
and  laid  the  foundation — broad  and  firm,  at  once  of  a 
missionary  work,  and  of  a settled  religious  community, 
which  perhaps  may  outlast  the  parent  body. 

Dr.  Coke,  not  abjectly,  but  in  a manly  spirit,  surren- 
dered himself  to  Wesley’s  guidance  ; and,  avoiding  to 
risk  any  thing  as  to  the  onward  movement  of  the  evangelic 
enterprise,  by  an  unseasonable  obtrusion  of  his  individual 
notions  or  opinions,  he  gave  himself  to  the  work — that 
is,  to  Wesleyan  Christianity,  without  distraction,  disturb- 
ance, or  exceptive  protest ; and  it  was  such  a colleague  as 
this  that  Wesley  needed.  But  as  a consequence  of  this 
(it  should  not  be  called  subserviency)  it  followed  that  al- 
though entitled  to  a foremost  place  among  the  founders  of 
Methodism,  he  can  not  be  thought  of  as  having  imparted 
to  itself  any  peculiar  characteristics,  springing  from  his 
own  mind  or  temper.  In  this  respect,  incidental  as  it  is,  a 
ground  of  comparison  might  again  be  made  good  between 
the  apostle  of  the  East  Indies,  and  the  apostle  of  the  West. 
Xavier  illuminated  the  early  Jesuitism  by  the  world-wide 
splendor  of  his  virtues  ; but  his  genuine  fame  stands  clear 
of  any  direct  implication  with  Jesuitism,  as  a scheme. 

To  render  to  Dr.  Coke — in  a word — the  tribute  of 
praise  that  is  his  due,  as  Wesley’s  most  efficient  coadjutor, 
completes  what  need  be  said  of  him  in  relation  to  our 
present  purpose. 


LADY  HUNTINGDON. 

The  broad  facts  of  this  noble  lady’s  history  affora 
ground  enough  for  the  repute  she  has  enjoyed  as  a wo- 
man of  much  tact  and  ability,  of  great  energy,  and  of  a 
munificent  temper ; while  the  use  she  made  of  her  in- 
fluence and  fortune  for  the  promotion  of  the  Methodistic 
movement — that  is  to  say,  of  Christianity  itself,  suffi- 


120 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


ciently  attests  her  piety  and  zeal.  It  must  also  be  in- 
ferred from  the  circumstance  of  her  having  retained  the 
friendship  and  regard  of  many  among  the  leading  persons 
of  her  time,  through  a long  period  of  years,  that  she  pos- 
sessed qualities  of  mind  and  attractions  of  manner,  that 
were  of  no  ordinary  sort;  for  it  is  certain  that  those 
who  ridiculed,  or  even  hated  her  Methodism,  still  yielded 
themselves,  in  frequebt  instances,  to  her  personal  influence. 
So  far,  an  idea  of  Lady  Huntingdon  may  be  gathered 
from  facts  that  are  beyond  doubt.  There  is,  however, 
so  little  that  is  discriminative  in  the  extant  eulogies  of  her 
friends  and  correspondents,  or  of  her  biographers,  and  there 
is  so  little  that  bears  a clearly  marked  individuality  in  her 
own  letters,  that  a distinct  image  of  her  mind  and  temper 
is  not  easy  to  obtain. 

As  to  the  position  assigned  to  her  among  the  founders 
of  Methodism,  it  is  due  to  her  rather  on  the  ground  of 
what  she  did  for  it,  as  its  patroness,  which  was  almost 
immeasurable,  than  because  she  imprinted  upon  it  any 
characteristic  of  her  own  mind.  Calvinistic  Methodism 
was  not  of  her  creation.  In  the  centre  of  the  brilliant 
company  of  her  pious  relatives  and  noble  friends,  and  with 
a numerous  attendance  of  educated  and  episcopally  or- 
dained ministers,  and — beyond  this  inner  circle — a broad 
penumbra  of  lay  preachers,  chosen  by  herself,  and  edu- 
cated, maintained,  and  employed  at  her  cost,  and  acting 
under  her  immediate  direction,  she  seems  to  sit  as  a 
queen.  Something  of  the  regal  style — something  of  the 
air  of  the  autocrat,  was  natural  to  one  who,  with  the 
consciousness  of  rank,  and  with  the  habitude  of  one  ac- 
customed to  the  highest  society,  was  gifted  with  a pecu- 
liar governing  ability,  and  was  actually  wielding  an  ex- 
tensive influence  over  men  and  things.  It  would  have 
been  wonderful  indeed  if  nothing  of  the  sort  had  been 
perceptible  in  her  manner  and  style;  yet  that  her  main 
intention  was  pure  and  beneficent,  and  that  ambition  was 
not  her  passion,  will  be  felt  and  confessed  by  every  candid 
reader  of  her  letters. 


LADY  HUNTINGDON. 


121 


These  letters,  or  so  much  of  her  correspondence  as  has 
been  given  to  the  world,  amply  attest  what  is  here  alleged 
in  her  behalf,  namely,  that  Lady  Huntingdon,  like  Wesley, 
and  like  Whitefield,  and  others  around  them,  was  gov- 
erned by  a motive  of  the  highest  order,  and  that  she 
has  a rightful  claim  upon  our  sympathies  and  admiration. 
Thus  far  these  documents  are  clearly  available  in  her  be- 
half; but  they  do  not  afford  the  means  of  giving  distinct- 
ness to  a portraiture  of  her  mind  and  temper ; and  they 
are  such  that  a continuous  perusal  of  them  can  be  accom- 
plished only  as  a task.  They  indicate  much  business-like 
ability,  and  they  show  always  a pertinent  adherence  to 
the  matter  in  hand  ; they  are  therefore  more  determinate, 
by  far,  than  Whitefield’s,  and,  indeed,  are  little  less  so 
than  Wesley’s,  whose  letters  are  eminent  samples  of  suc- 
cinct determinativeness  : they  bespeak  an  unvarying  and 
genuine  fervor,  and  a simple-hearted  onward  tendency 
toward  the  one  purpose  of  her  life — the  spread  of  the 
Gospel,  and  the  honor  of  her  Saviour.  Lady  Hunting- 
don’s letters  are  moreover  marked  by  often  repeated,  but 
not  to  be  questioned  professions  of  the  deep  sense  she 
had  of  her  own  unworthiness  and  unprofitableness.  Such 
are  the  ingredients — few  and  perpetually  recurrent — of 
these  compositions:  a severe  monotony  (not  severe  in  the 
sense  of  harshness)  is  their  characteristic.  But  then  when 
it  is  recollected  in  what  society  she  had  passed  her  early 
years,  and  from  which  she  was  never  entirely  separated, 
and  that  she  possessed  mind  enough  to  maintain  her  place 
in  the  regard  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished  persons 
of  that  age,  it  may  seem  surprising  that  the  uniform  color 
of  these  letters  is  relieved  by  no  sparkling  of  wit,  by  no 
flashes  of  intellect,  by  no  allusive  references  to  the  events 
of  the  time  ; and  that  they  do  not  put  us  into  connection 
with  the  great  world  by  one  casual  hint,  or  a single  dis- 
cursive observation ; and  yet  of  that  world  she  knew  much ; 
nor  was  she  ever  far  from  it. 

This  monotony,  and  this  absolute  exclusion  of  whatever 
was  merely  secular,  had,  however,  its  meaning,  and  we 

F 


122 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


may  see  in  it,  not  simply  an  indication  of  that  fixedness 
of  purpose  which  may  be  expected  in  such  an  instance, 
but  something  more,  and  which,  as  we  have  noticed,  is 
a characteristic  of  Methodism.  A straitened  and  rudi- 
mentary style  of  thought  attaches  to  every  thing  that  has 
survived  of  the  Methodistic  literature — if  literature  it  can 
be  called.  Although  voluminous,  it  has  little  volume,  and 
might  be  compressed  within  very  narrow  limits : it  is 
theological,  but  it  does  not  constitute  a theology.  This 
mass  of  letters,  journals,  minutes,  experiences,  or  of  con- 
troversial treatises,  does  indeed  furnish  much  evidence 
illustrative  of  the  rise,  progress,  and  characteristics  of 
Methodism  ; yet  there  is  little  in  it  that  would  now  attract 
an  eye  not  in  search  of  mere  evidence  touching  this  course 
of  events.  So  fitted  for  their  part  were  the  originators 
and  movers  of  Methodism  that,  while  amply  furnished  with 
gifts  proper  for  the  great  work  they  w^ere  to  accomplish, 
they  were  not  so  qualified  as  might  have  enabled  them 
to  go  beyond  their  allotted  task. 

This  law  of  the  Methodistic  dispensation  receives  pecul- 
iar illustration  in  the  instance  now  before  us.  If  Lady 
Huntingdon,  along  with  the  advantage  she  drew  from 
her  rank  and  her  command  of  fortune,  and  enjoying,  as  she 
did,  access  to  statesmen  and  official  persons — if  she  had 
possessed  a wider  compass  of  mind — if  she  had  been  so 
far  the  Elizabeth  as  might  have  prompted  her  to  call  a 
Walsingham  and  a Cecil  to  her  counsels,  she  might,  at 
that  time,  have  put  forward  an  ecclesiastical  movement 
the  consequences  of  which  we,  of  this  time,  should  have 
seen  and  felt  in  every  thing  around  us.  The  Church,  at 
that  time,  although  it  had  animus,  had  no  soul,  and  no 
concentration,  moral  or  spiritual.  It  had  slid  far  away 
from  the  Reformation-ground.  In  reply  to  its  assailants 
— the  Methodists — it  dared  not  make  its  appeal,  as  they 
did,  to  the  Articles  and  Homilies,  nor  did  it  even  retain 
more  than  a very  feeble  devotional  sympathy  with  the 
liturgy.  Scarcely  at  all,  in  a religious  sense,  or  other- 
wise than  from  motives  of  interest,  was  the  aristocracy 


LADY  HUNTINGDON. 


123 


of  that  age  attached  to  the  Established  Church : the 
mass  of  the  upper  classes  was  utterly  indifferent,  or  was 
avowedly  infidel ; while  among  those  persons  of  rank 
who  might  be  religiously  disposed,  more  than  a few  were 
openly  or  implicitly  connected,  either  with  Nonconformity, 
or  with  Romanism.  Upon  this  class  Whitefield’s  preach- 
ing had  made  a decisive  impression.  As  to  the  masses 
of  the  people,  they  were  nearly  lost  to  the  Church,  except 
when  a parson  or  a magistrate  could  gather  them  as  a 
mob,  to  carry  some  purpose  of  violence. 

Jf  at  that  time  a head  and  leader,  occupying  Lady 
Huntingdon’s  high  position,  and  surrounded,  as  she  was, 
with  ordained  ministers,  not  wanting  in  endowments  as 
popular  preachers,  had  devised  and  planted — not  a Soci- 
ety, but  a Church  ; and  if,  instead  of  building  and  opening 
chapels,  here  and  there,  without  polity  or  plan,  she  had 
employed,  in  a politic  manner,  the  means  which  w^ere  in 
fact  at  her  command,  it  may  be  doubted  if  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  or  the  hierarchy  then  in  possession  of  it, 
could  long  have  held  its  own.  Toward  the  people  a 
body  of  Calvinistic  clergy  might  easily  have  made  good 
their  own  position  as  the  true  successors  of  the  Reform- 
ers : those  few  phrases  in  the  Offices  which  had  a dis- 
cordant sound,  were  not  enough  to  have  constituted  a 
barrier,  resisting  such  a force  as  that  which  Methodism 
had  then  at  its  command.  The  people,  crowding  into 
the  churches,  if  a plan  had  been  concerted  and  held  to, 
would  have  borne  their  favored  preachers  forward,  high 
lifted  above  the  obstructions  which  these  few  obsolete 
forms  could  have  been  made  to  supply. 

Or  let  it  be  imagined  that  a politic  or  statesmanlike 
comprehension  of  the  relative  strength  of  whatever  was, 
or  might  have  been  opposed  to  it,  had  brought  the  Cal- 
vinistic and  the  Arminian  bodies  to  combine,  and  to  act 
in  concert ; in  that  case  could  those  things  have  come 
down  to  us  entire,  which  have  come  down?  It  is  hard 
to  think  they  could.  But  Methodism  was  not  a scheme 
devised  by  man ; it  was  not,  at  any  moment,  earlier  or 


124 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


later,  a foreseen  movement.  It  did,  in  its  day,  the  work 
of 'God,  and  it  possessed  neither  the  innate  powers,  nor 
the  ambition  to  do  more. 

Whether  the  chapels  in  Lady  Huntingdon’s  Connection 
are  at  this  time  few  or  many,  is  a matter  of  no  general 
moment  to  inquire  ; for  whether  few  or  many,  the  “ Con- 
nection” has  subsided  into  its  place  as  one  among  the 
religious  communities  that  hold  orthodoxy  and  evangelic 
doctrine ; and  probably  it  is  efficient  in  a full  proportion 
to  its  statistics.  But  with  this  we  have  here  no  concern. 
What  does  concern  us  is  the  fact  that  much  that  has 
become  characteristic  of  evangelic  Christianity,  at  the 
present  time,  had  its  origin  in  Lady  Huntingdon’s  draw- 
ing-room ; — that  is  to  say,  in  the  circle  of  which  she  was 
the  centre,  and  her  house  the  gathering  point.  In  a 
diffusive  or  undefined  manner  this  religious  style  has  per- 
vaded the  non-episcopal  religious  communions,  where  it 
has  easily  commingled  itself  with  existing  homogeneous 
elements.  But  within  the  Episcopal  Church  the  trans- 
mission was  more  determinate,  and  more  sharply  out- 
lined, and  it  may  there  be  traced  with  more  precision, 
and  is  pregnant  with  further  consequences. 

The  fact  of  this  religious  transmission,  which  connects 
the  venerated  names  of  Venn,  Newton,  Scott,  Milner,  and 
others,  in  no  very  remote  manner,  with  the  Founders  of 
Methodism,  might,  to  a reader  of  its  history,  seem  too 
conspicuous  to  be  called  in  question ; nor  does  it  very 
clearly  appear  what  those  manly  and  Christianlike  feel- 
ings are  which  should  prompt  any  parties,  at  this  time,  to 
repudiate  it.  A wiry  task  surely  is  it  which  those  under- 
take who  labor,  thread  by  thread,  to  disengage  the  mod- 
ern episcopal  evangelic  bodies  from  the  ties  of  filial  re- 
lationship to  Wesley,  Whitefield,  and  their  colleagues. 
Instead  of  pursuing  an  attenuated  argument  of  this  sort, 
one  would  boldly — as  cordially  affected  toward  the  Epis- 
copal Church — rejoice  in  contemplating  this  (assumed) 
fact  that  the  Methodistic  revival,  instead  of  its  turning 
aside  from  the  Church,  as  if  adjudged  to  be  undeserving 


LADY  HUNTINGDON. 


125 


of  the  heavenly  benefit,  did  so  largely  partake  of  it,  and 
that  the  consequences  of  this  revival  have  centred  upon 
the  Episcopal  Church,  far  more  decisively  and  more  per- 
manently than  it  did  upon  any  of  the  dissident  bodies 
around  it.  It  is  the  Episcopal  Church  that  has  inherited 
the  main  part  of  the  religious  animation  and  refreshment 
which  has  come  down  from  that  band  of  ordained  minis- 
ters of  w^hich  we  are  now  speaking.  Besides  those  al- 
ready named,  and  who  stand  so  nearly  related  to  the  pres- 
ent times,  in  ascending  a few  years  we  reach,  without 
a break,  that  company  of  men,  less  regular  in  their  min- 
istrations, but  not  less  deserving  of  affectionate  regard, 
whose  names  can  by  no  means  be  disconnected  with 
Methodism — names  which,  so  long  as  the  Church  retains 
its  Articles  and  Homilies,  it  would  be  a treason  to  dis- 
own. Let  Fletcher  lead  the  way,  and  let  him  bring  with 
him  Hervey,  Grimshaw,  Berridge,  Romaine,  Toplady, 
Talbot,  Walker,  Shirley.  Is  it  easy  to  imagine  that  the 
twelve  or  twenty  clergymen  who  must  stand  or  fall 
together,  as  the  true  representatives  of  the  Reformers, 
would  have  been  spurned  and  condemned  by  Cranmer, 
Ridley,  Latimer,  Hooper;  or  that  Jewell  and  Hooker 
would  have  turned  from  them  with  cold  disdain?  Can 
we  think  this  ? Certainly  those  can  not  think  it  who,  with 
no  interests  at  stake,  and  no  prejudices  in  peril,  are  ac- 
customed to  follow  the  devious  and  perplexed  track  of 
religious  history  by  the  guidance  of  principles  applicable 
to  all  ages. 

It  may  well  be  granted  that  the  rise  of  Methodism 
brings  to  view  many  instances  of  what  may  be  called  in- 
dependent origination  ; and  it  is  true  that  the  minds  of 
men  who  were  unknown  to  each  other  became,  about  the 
same  time,  similarly  affected  toward  the  first  truths  of  the 
Christian  system  ; so  that  when  accident  or  sympathy 
had  brought  them  into  contact,  they  readily  coalesced, 
and  thenceforward  thought  it  their  duty  and  happiness 
to  act  in  concert.  So  acting,  and  so  associating,  Lady 
Huntingdon  gathered  them  around  herself ; and  she  aided 


126 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


and,  to  some  extent,  she  directed  their  movements.  But 
this  company,  thus  for  a while  concentrated,  and  thus 
governed,  at  length  diverged  in  the  two  directions  of  a 
new  Calvinistic  form  of  dissent ; and  of  Calvinistic  con- 
formity; and  while  the  one  has  become  a variety  only, 
within  the  dissenting  mass,  not  materially  affecting  its 
position  or  prospects,  the  latter  has  been  the  principal 
means  of  recovering  the  long-lost  influence  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  over  the  laity,  and  of  bringing  down  to 
these  precarious  times  a firm  Protestant  feeling,  which  is 
not  unlikely  to  burst  forth  anew,  and  to  lead  the  way  in  a 
time  of  less  ambiguity  than  the  present. 

As  with  Wesley,  so  with  Lady  Huntingdon,  a formal 
separation  from  the  Established  Church  was,  in  each  act 
and  instance,  submitted  to  with  extreme  reluctance,  and 
not  until  it  was  felt  to  be  inevitable.  When  at  length  the 
irregularities  of  the  Methodistic  clergy  could  no  longer 
be  winked  at  by  the  Church  authorities,  the  greater  num- 
ber of  them  fell  back  into  their  places,  as  parish  minis- 
ters ; and  this  defection,  while  it  give  rise,  necessarily,  to 
a new  order  of  ministers  in  the  ‘‘Connection”  whose  or- 
dination placed  them  on  a level  only,  with  the  dissenting 
ministry,  it  took  place  at  a time  when  no  alternative  was 
left  to  Lady  Huntingdon’s  congregations  but  to  seek  pro- 
tection under  the  Toleration  Act,  as  dissenters. 

This  double  illustration  of  a conspicuous  principle,  as 
afforded  by  the  Wesleyan  and  Calvinistic  movement, 
might  be  enough  to  preclude  the  necessity  of  any  future 
experiments,  attempted  with  the  hope  of  constructing  a 
platform  outside  the  Episcopal  Church,  but  yet  resting 
against  its  walls : it  is  evident  that  the  reforming  energy 
must  henceforward  take  an  inward  direction.  But  at  the 
moment  when  any  such  reform  does  take  place,  unless  a 
constitutional  renovation  of  the  two  nonconforming  masses 
— the  Wesleyan  and  the  Calvinistic — shall  avail  to  preclude 
so  natural  a result,  an  extensive  absorption  will  be  im- 
minent to  both  ; for  it  can  not  but  happen  that  the  renova- 
tion, or  the  more  effective  adjustment  of  a body  near  to  us, 


THE  METHODISTIC  COMPANY. 


127 


consigns  ourselves  to  decay  unless  we  fully  partake  of 
the  same  benefits. 

Lady  Huntingdon  was  always  the  object  of  a warm 
personal  affection  with  those  who  were  nearest  to  her. 
With  them,  it  is  always  our  dear  Lady  Huntingdon  f 
and  putting  out  of  view  formal  eulogies,  it  is  unquestion- 
able that,  if  she  governed  her  Connection  as  having  a 
right  to  rule  it,  her  style  and  behavior  (like  Wesley’s)  in- 
dicated the  purest  motives,  and  the  most  entire  simplic- 
ity of  purpose.  This,  in  truth,  may  be  said  to  have  been 
the  common  characteristic  of  the  founders  of  Methodism, 
especially  of  the  two  Wesleys,  of  Whitefield,  Fletcher. 
Coke,  and  Lady  Huntingdon — a devotedness  to  the  serv- 
ice and  glory  of  the  Saviour  Christ,  which  none  who  saw 
and  conversed  with  them  could  question. 

The  same  praise,  and  in  the  same  degree  is  undoubted- 
ly the  due  of  many  of  those  who  were  the  associates  and 
colleagues  of  these  principal  persons.  It  is  as  bright  a 
company  that  we  have  before  us,  as  we  find  any  where 
on  the  page  of  Christian  history. 


THE  METHODISTIC  COMPANY. 

The  names  that  would  claim  a place  in  a history  of 
Methodism,  on  the  ground  of  personal  connection  with  its 
founders,  and  of  important  services  rendered  to  this  evan- 
gelic movement,  may  be  as  many  as  a hundred ; — a com- 
pany large  enough,  assuredly,  to  attract  an  eye  that  is 
looking  over  the  wide  field  of  Christian  history ; and  why 
should  it  not  attract  as  much  regard  as  we  are  used  to 
pay  to  any  other  band  of  men  whose  names  are  conserved 
with  affection  and  respect  ? 

It  would  not  be  easy,  or  not  possible,  to  name  any 
company  of  Christian  preachers,  from  the  apostolic  age 
downward  to  our  own  times,  whose  proclamation  of  the 
Gospel  has  been  in  a larger  proportion  of  instances  effect- 


i28 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


ive,  or  which  has  been  carried  over  so  large  a surface, 
with  so  much  power,  or  with  so  uniform  a result.  No 
such  harvest  of  souls  is  recorded  to  have  been  gathered 
by  any  body  of  contemporary  men,  since  the  first  cen- 
tury. An  attempt  to  compute  the  converts  to  Methodistic 
Christianity  would  be  a fruitless,  as  well  as  presumptuous 
undertaking,  from  which  we  draw  back;  but  we  must 
not  call  in  question,  what  is  so  variously  and  fully  attest- 
ed, that  an  unimpeachable  Christian  profession  was  the 
fruit  of  the  Methodistic  preaching  in  instances  that  must 
be  computed  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  throughout  Great 
Britain,  and  in  America. 

Until  the  contrary  can  be  clearly  proved,  it  may  be  af- 
firmed that  no  company  of  men  of  whose  labors  and  doc- 
trine we  have  any  sufficient  notice,  has  gone  forth  with  a 
creed  more  distinctly  orthodox,  or  more  exempt  from  ad- 
mixture of  the  doctrinal  feculence  of  an  earlier  time.  None 
have  stood  forward  more  free  than  these  w^ere  from  petty 
solicitudes  concerning  matters  of  observance,  to  which, 
whether  they  were  to  be  upheld  or  to  be  denounced,  an 
exaggerated  importance  was  attributed.  None  have  con- 
fined themselves  more  closely  to  those  principal  subjects 
which  bear  directly  upon  the  relationship  of  man  to  God 
— as  immortal,  accountable,  guilty,  and  redeemed.  If  we 
are  tempted  to  complain  of  the  unvaried  complexion  of 
the  Methodistic  teaching,  it  is  the  uniformity  which  results 
from  a close  adherence  to  the  very  rudiments  of  the  Gos- 
pel. Uniformity  or  sameness  of  aspect,  as  it  may  be  the 
coloring  of  dullness  and  of  death,  so  may  it  spring  from 
simplicity  and  power ; but  can  it  be  a question  to  which 
of  these  sources  we  should  attribute  that  undiversified 
breadth  which  is  the  characteristic  of  Methodism  ? 

To  dispute  the  claims  of  the  Methodistic  company  to 
be  thus  regarded,  on  the  ground  of  any  errors  of  an  inci- 
dental kind  that  may  have  attended  their  teaching,  or  of 
the  follies  or  delinquencies  that  may  be  chargeable  upon 
any  of  them,  individually,  would  be  a frivolous  as  well 
as  an  ungenerous  mode  of  proceeding.  Need  it  be  said 


THE  METHODISTIC  COMPANY. 


12^ 


that  these  Methodists  were  men  “of  like  passions  witii 
ourselves  and  such,  too,  were  those  who,  in  the  Apos- 
tolic age,  carried  the  Gospel  throughout  the  Roman  world, 
and  beyond  it.  Taken  in  the  mass,  the  one  company  of 
men  was  as  wise  as  the  other — not  wiser — as  holy,  not 
more  holy.  If  it  be  affirmed  that  the  Christian  worthies 
of  some  remote  time  were,  as  a class  of  men,  of  a loftier 
stature  in  virtue  and  piety  than  these  with  whom  we  have 
now  to  do,  let  the  evidence  on  which  such  an  assumption 
could  be  made  to  rest  be  brought  forward  : this  can  never 
be  done ; and  the  supposition  itself  should  be  rejected  as 
a puerile  superstition. 

Yet  there  is  one  plea  on  the  ground  of  which,  if  it  be 
valid,  the  Methodistic  company  might  be  cast  down  from 
the  place  of  honor  which  is  now  claimed  for  it.  This 
ground  of  exception  is  that  occupied  by  those  who,  with 
strictness  and  consistency,  hold  the  doctrine  that,  apart 
from  the  line  of  episcopal  ordination,  unbroken  in  its  de- 
scent, there  is  and  can  be  no  Church,  no  ministry,  no 
sacraments,  no  salvation.  It  is  much  to  be  desired  that 
those  who  profess  thus  to  think  would  take  up  the  case  of 
Methodism,  and  deal  with  it  thoroughly,  flinching  from 
no  consequence  toward  which  their  theory  may  lead 
them.  The  instance  is  every  way  well  adapted  to  such  a 
purpose  ; nor  does  it  offer  any  color  of  evasion,  nor  admit 
of  any  way  of  escape  from  the  one  conclusion  which  the 
premises  demand,  if  those  premises  be  valid.  The  condi- 
tions of  this  very  definite  case  preclude  an  evasive  reply, 
such  as  this — “ We  can  not  tell  whether  Methodism  was 
from  Heaven  or  of  men.”  Neither  Wesley’s  episcopal  or- 
dination, nor  Whitefield’s,  could,  on  the  ground  of  the  “ his- 
toric succession,”  carry  with  it  a power  of  ordination  ; and 
certainly  it  could  not  excuse  or  palliate  their  insubordina- 
tion, as  presbyters  of  the  established  Church.  It  is  not 
as  if  Methodism  had  sprung  up  in  some  remote  quarter  of 
Christendom,  where  it  could  not  have  connected  itself 
with  the  Apostolic  line,  or  where  ignorance,  on  questions 
of  this  sort,  was  involuntary.  Nor  is  it  as  if  Methodism 


130 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


had  been  a revival,  taking  place  within  a body  which 
claimed  for  its  ministry  a high  ecclesiastical  ancestry,  so 
that  its  original  irregularity  was  shrouded  by  the  mists  of 
centuries.  Methodism  took  its  rise  in  the  very  bosom  of 
the  Apostolic  succession ; and  it  was  carried  forward  by 
men  who  were  fully  informed  as  to  all  subjects  bearing 
upon  the  course  which  they  pursued.  The  offense — if  an 
offense — was  committed  in  broad  day,  by  men  with  their 
eyes  open;  and  these  men  had  cut  themselves  off  from 
the  benefit  of  pleading  an  abstract  conscientious  opinion, 
analogous  to  that  of  the  Presbyterians  or  Independents : 
they  declared  themselves  Churchmen  and  Episcopalians. 

On  every  side,  therefore,  this  Methodistic  problem  is 
clearly  defined ; and  the  more  we  think  of  it,  the  more 
exempt  will  it  seem  from  ambiguities,  or  ways  of  escape. 
No  one  who  is  accustomed  to  pursue  principles  with  logical 
severity  into  their  consequences,  will  deny  that  the  Apos- 
tolic-succession theory,  such  as  it  has  been  enunciated 
and  defined  of  late,  must  either  break  itself  upon  Meth- 
odism, or  must  consign  Methodism  and  its  millions  of  souls 
to  perdition,  in  as  peremptory  a manner  as  that  in  which 
the  Church  of  Rome  fixes  its  anathema  upon  heretical 
nations. 

No  doubt  there  are  more  than  a few  sincere,  seriously- 
minded,  and  kind-tempered  persons,  holding  this  theory, 
who  would  find  themselves  wanting  in  the  nerve  and 
hardihood  required  of  them,  on  an  occasion  like  this,  when 
challenged,  by  the  clearest  rule  of  consistency,  to  take 
their  places,  as  spectators,  while  men,  such  as  Wesley, 
Whitefield,  Fletcher,  with  millions  of  their  proselytes  and 
spiritual  progeny,  are  to  be  sent  down  alive  into  the  pit ! 
The  one  precise  ground  of  this  auto  da  fe  should  not  be 
lost  sight  of.  Let  it  be  stated  ; — the  Methodistic  preach- 
ers, even  if  they  held  some  questionable  subsidiary  no- 
tions, yet  professed,  in  the  most  decisive  terms,  their 
adherence  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Three  Creeds ; therefore 
they  were  not  heretics.  They  declared  their  approval 
of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles : they  threw  themselves  upon 


THE  METHODISTIC  COMPANY. 


131 


the  Book  of  Homilies  : they  frequented  the  liturgical  wor- 
ship of  the  Church  ; they  partook  of  its  sacraments  ; they 
acknowledged  its  orders. 

It  can  never  be  thought  a Christian-like  act  to  consign 
masses  of  men  to  perdition  on  the  mere  charge  of  enthu- 
siasm, or  of  some  extravagance  in  behavior.  As  to  the 
general  good  conduct  of  the  Methodistic  converts,  it  is 
not  pretended  that  it  was  not  fully  equal  to  that  of  other 
men — reputed  Christians.  Nevertheless,  there  remains 
this  one  ground  of  exception  against  the  Methodistic 
body,  which  the  Apostolic-succession  theory  brings  for- 
ward, and  which  it  must  continue  to  bring  forward  and 
insist  upon.  Whoever,  while  he  holds  this  theory,  flies 
off  from  its  application  in  a case  so  flagrant  and  so  thor- 
oughly unambiguous  as  this,  implicates  himself  in  the  sin 
of  schism,  and  comes  within  range  of  that  anathema  to 
which  he  has  not  the  conscience  and  the  courage  to  re- 
spond. 

But  if  Methodism  be  cut  off  from  one  line  of  succession, 
it  may  claim  another,  or  more  than  one  other.  If  there 
be  any  difficulty  in  connecting  this  body  of  evangelists 
with  those,  in  other  ages,  who,  in  a like  spirit,  have  borne 
testimony  to  the  truth,  that  difficulty  attaches  much  ra- 
ther to  the  obscurity  of  the  extant  evidence  on  the  ground 
of  which  the  claim  of  the  more  ancient  witnesses  is  to  be 
established,  than  to  any  ambiguity  as  to  the  latter.  To 
trace  the  true  Apostolic  line,  from  Methodism  upward, 
would  lead  us  over  ground  not  merely  too  extensive, 
but  which  might  be  passed  over  to  more  advantage  apart 
from  our  immediate  purpose.  Already  we  have  claimed 
for  Wesley,  Whitefield,  and  others,  a genuine  relationship 
to  the  Protestant  martyrs  and  founders  of  the  English 
Church,  between  whom  and  themselves  no  important  dif- 
ference of  doctrine  or  of  feeling  can  be  made  out.  The 
question  is  not  whether  the  English  reformers  would 
have  formally  sanctioned  the  Methodistic  secession,  for  to 
this  question  no  answer  can  be  obtained,  even  by  infer- 
ence; but  it  is  affirmed  that  these  Methodists,  rather  than 


132 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


any  other  Churchmen  of  their  times,  may  make  good  their 
pretension  to  have  been,  in  doctrine  and  in  spirit,  the 
genuine  sons  of  the  English  Reformed  Church. 

But  the  Methodists  took  orders  in  another  manner,  less 
direct  and  explicit  indeed,  but  yet — so  bold  are  we — not 
unauthentic  or  unimportant.  Methodism,  in  a deep  and 
genuine  sense,  held  on  to  Nonconformity,  and  to  whatever 
had  been  good  in  Puritanism. 

Wesley,  W hitefield,  Fletcher,  and  their  colleagues,  if 
placed  by  the  side  of  Howe,  Baxter,  Charnock,  Manton, 
Bates,  Flavel,  and  others,  must  be  thought  to  rank  below 
them,  in  theological  attainment,  in  compass  of  learning,  in 
intellectuality,  and  in  discursive  power,  as  preachers  and 
writers ; as  well  as  in  the  depth  and  elevation  of  their 
devotional  style.  In  blamelessness  of  life,  in  devotedness, 
and  on  the  ground  of  doctrinal  integrity,  the  balance 
stands  even  between  the  two  companies.  But  then,  even 
after  allowance  has  been  made  for  the  obstructions  that 
stood  in  the  way  of  the  Nonconformists,  the  Methodists 
had  much  the  advantage  on  the  ground  of  expansive  and 
adventurous  Christian  philanthropy : on  this  ground,  in 
fact,  the  founders  of  Methodism  have  no  rivals.  Yet  be- 
sides their  warmer  zeal,  as  evangelists,  the  relation  in 
which  they  stood  to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  their 
time  gave  them  a signal  advantage : to  this  an  allusion 
has  already  been  made.  The  energies  and  the  animus  of 
the  Nonconformists,  as  also  of  the  Puritans,  had,  to  a great 
extent,  been  employed  and  exhausted  in  resisting,  and  in 
protesting  against,  the  despotic  measures  of  the  Court  and 
Church  of  their  times:  hence  it  was  that  they  were  always 
too  much  occupied  with  matters  which  were  either  alto- 
gether frivolous,  or  of  very  inferior  moment.  But  a pro- 
testing and  a resistant  function  of  this  sort  does  not  favor- 
ably develop  the  symmetry  of  the  Christian  character ; 
much  less  does  it  auspiciously  affect  the  course  of  the 
evangelist ; for  even  if  his  temper  has  not  become  soured 
in  controversy,  his  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  souls  will 
scarcely  hold  itself  clear  of  impatience  to  make  proselytes 


THE  METHODISTIC  COMPANY. 


133 


to  his  party.  Resistance  to  Church  despotism  may  be  the 
duty  of  Christian  men,  at  some  seasons  ; but  such  seasons 
will  not  be  the  times  that  are  made  glad  by  the  triumphs 
of  the  Gospel. 

The  Methodists  stood  in  a far  better  position  than  this 
as  evangelists.  Reviled,  pelted,  and  hooted  by  mobs, 
as  they  were,  sometimes  mistreated  by  magistrates,  and 
generally  unwisely  and  unkindly  dealt  with  by  the  Church 
authorities,  they  themselves  had  no  quarrel,  either  with 
Church  or  State ; in  all  points  they  were  loyal  men:  they 
cherished  also  a filial  regard  toward  the  Church;  and  they 
themselves  were  of  it.  As  to  the  civil  power,  they  knew 
and  found  that  its  feeling  and  arm  were  always  on  their 
side.  In  their  bosoms  there  was  no  rankling  grudge 
against  authorities — there  was  no  particle  of  that  venom 
which,  wherever  it  lodges,  infects  and  paralyzes  the  re- 
ligious affections.  Their  sole  quarrel  was  with  sin  and 
Satan ; it  was  not  with  the  visible  powers  of  this  world. 
Men  may  wage  war  with  the  Devil,  without  hatred  ; but 
not  with  their  fellow  men.  Whitefield’s  face,  while  de- 
nouncing all  the  powers  of  darkness,  still  wore  its  usual 
loving  smoothness  ; not  so  the  Puritan,  when  Prelacy  was 
in  his  eye. 

We  may  well  recognize  that  providential  ordering  of 
the  Methodistic  revival,  which  kept  it  clear  of  all  sympa- 
thy with  the  bitter  “ vestments  and  gesture”  feeling  of  the 
preceding  century ; and  if  required  to  name  that  one  ad- 
junctive circumstance  which  most  favored  its  progress,  as 
a proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  we  should  not  hesitate  to 
say — the  Church  training,  and  the  Church  feeling  of  the 
Wesleys,  and  of  Whitefield. 

The  Puritan  temper  had  nearly  ceased  to  attach  to  the 
Nonconformists  of  the  times  of  Watts  and  Doddridge ; 
and  they  and  their  predecessors  had  done  their  part  well 
in  preserving  evangelic  doctrine  from  the  extinction  which 
then  threatened  it.  It  was  a witness-function  which  they 
had  discharged,  and  which  had  more  of  a passive  than 
of  an  active  character ; invasive  it  was  not  in  any  de- 


134 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


gree ; yet  the  true-hearted  among  the  Nonconformists 
affectionately  greeted  their  more  enterprising  successors, 
and  cordially  bid  them  God’s  speed.  When  Whitefield 
sat  at  the  bedside  of  Watts,  and  in  his  frequent  inter- 
course with  Doddridge,  and  when  he  and  the  Wesleys, 
as  often  happened,  were  welcomed  in  the  homes  of  the 
dissenters — that  is  to  say,  such  dissenters  as  Williams 
of  Kidderminster,  they  may  be  thought  of  as  then  tacitly 
receiving  a charge,  and  as  being  invested  with  a com- 
mission to  do  effectively  what  these  good  men  had  not 
been  in  a position  to  attempt.  Yet  it  was  with  a lively 
satisfaction  that  they  hailed  the  dawn  of  a brighter  day ! 
They  gave  the  rising  Methodism  their  blessing,  and  died, 
rejoicing  in  hope.  Thus  did  this  new  ministration  of 
Apostolic  Christianity  receive  a double  authentication, 
first  and  formally  from  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  then 
virtually,  from  the  Nonconforming  Church.  It  was  in  a 
manner  not  altogether  unlike  this  that  the  Reformers — 
German,  Swiss,  and  English — united  in  themselves,  offi- 
cially and  personally,  the  double  continuity  of  a formal, 
and  of  an  occult  ordination.  Visibly,  they  were  min- 
isters of  the  Church  from  which  they  separated,  and 
which  cast  them  out : at  the  same  time,  by  personal  in- 
tercourse and  correspondence,  by  congruity  in  doctrine, 
by  sympathy  as  martyrs,  or  as  sufferers  for  the  same 
Gospel,  they  stood  related  to  the  Bohemian  and  the  Wal- 
densian  bodies,  and  were  honored  by  the  opprobrium 
that  attached  to  the  names — Wickliffeites  and  Lollards. 

That  law  of  continuity  which  is  seen  to  prevail  in  the 
history  of  Christianity,  has  hitherto  always  shown  itself 
under  this  twofold  aspect.  That  is  to  say,  revivals  and 
renovations,  whenever  they  occur,  so  arise  as  to  render 
homage,  first,  to  the  visible  or  hierarchical  transmission 
of  Christian  ordinances  and  ministrations  ; and  at  the 
same  time  they  do  not  fail  to  connect  themselves  with 
that  which  has  come  down  from  an  earlier  season  of  re- 
form and  refreshment.  Although  an  ample  comment 
upon  this  biform  law  of  religious  history  might  seem,  in 


THE  METHODISTIC  COMPANY. 


135 


some  of  its  instances,  to  be  too  elaborate,  or  in  a degree 
precarious,  yet,  when  the  course  of  events  through  long 
periods  is  broadly  regarded,  it  presents  itself  too  fre- 
quently not  to  attract  notice,  and  to  establish  itself  silently 
in  our  convictions. 

Those  whose  own  religious  temperament  is  tranquil 
and  devout,  and  who  had  always  rather  love  than  hate, 
will,  while  reviewing  any  separate  portion  of  Christian 
history,  or  when  contemplating  the  whole  of  it,  draw 
much  comfort  from  the  considerations  which  this  general 
principle  suggests ; for  these  considerations  avail,  not 
merely  to  discharge  ecclesiastical  virulence,  if  it  has  had 
any  lodgment  in  our  minds,  but  to  abate  that  antagonistic 
vehemence  to  which  we  so  easily  give  place,  in  matters 
of  religion ; and  in  a word,  it  will  aid  us  in  the  endeavor 
to  look  calmly  upon  the  troubled  arena  of  this  present 
scene,  as  from  a higher  level. 

Further  from  our  immediate  purpose  we  must  not 
travel  than  may  be  needful  thus  to  bring  the  Method- 
isTic  Company  into,  what  we  think,  is  its  rightful  posi- 
tion on  the  field  of  religious  history.  How  comforting 
is  it,  and  how  consoling,  and  how  does  it  purify,  ennoble, 
animate,  and  elevate  our  own  feelings  when  we  consent 
to  think  and  speak  of  these  good  men  as  taking  their 
place  in  the  host  which  “no  man  can  number”  of  those 
who  are  constituting,  and  shall  constitute  a social  econ- 
omy, unearthly,  and  never  to  be  dissolved ! 

We  cast  from  us  therefore  with  pity  (and  with  shame 
if  ever  it  have  found  a lodgment  in  our  own  heart)  that 
hierarchical  arrogance  which  would  impel  us  to  look 
upon  the  Methodistic  band  with  scorn,  and  which  mut- 
ters its  anathemas  against  schismatics.  On  the  other 
side,  we  put  as  far  from  us  the  dissident’s  glorying  in  the 
same  company,  when  he  points  to  them  as  the  successful 
leaders  of  a great  and  permanent  revolt  from  the  Episco- 
pal Church.  In  the  place  of  either  of  these  contracted 
feelings,  we  recognize,  upon  the  front  of  Methodism,  that 
special  characteristic  which  has  attached  to  Heaven’s 


136 


FOUNDERS  OF  METHODISM. 


own  servants,  from  age  to  age,  as  the  authentic  represent- 
atives, first,  of  an  existing  and  visible  order  of  things ; 
and  then  of  that  always  extant,  remonstrant  energy  which 
took  its  rise  in  some  anterior  season  of  renovation.  Let 
us  be  shown  any  where  a company  of  men  whose  office 
it  has  been  to  reanimate  what  has  become  lifeless,  and  to 
purify  what  is  corrupt,  who  have  not  stood  related,  in  this 
twofold  manner,  to  the  present  and  to  the  past. 


THE  SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM. 


THE  rmST  ELEMENT  OF  METHODISM. 

Intending  to  confine  our  view  to  its  most  distinctive 
features,  we  inquire  concerning  the  Methodism  of  the  last 
century,  what  is  it  which  distinguishes  it  on  the  one  hand, 
from  that  religious  condition  which  it  found  existing,  and 
on  the  other,  from  that  which  has  come  into  its  place,  and 
which  now  surrounds  ourselves. 

Methodism  was  not  a New  Theology,  or  a polemical 
affirmation  of  dogmas,  contravening  or  adding  to  that 
system  of  belief  which  had  been  embodied,  two  centuries 
before,  in  the  articles  and  confessions  of  the  several  Prot- 
estant Churches.  Those  few  points  of  doctrine  which 
Wesley  individually  appended  to  the  existing  Protestant 
faith  do  not  materially  affect  our  present  allegation, 
namely,  that  the  Methodistic  preachers  held  and  taught, 
substantially,  the  doctrine  that  had  been  professed  by  the 
Reformers  ; and,  as  to  Whitefield,  and  those  who  followed 
with  him,  he  advanced  nothing,  in  doctrine,  that  was  new 
to  Calvinistic  theology. 

Nor  was  Methodism,  as  to  its  primary  intention,  the 
promulgation  and  enforcement  of  a new  religious  mode 
of  life,  or  an  order,  or  factitious  institute : it  was  not  the 
gathering  of  a body  of  Regulars.  Wesleyanism  did  in- 
deed issue  in  the  constitution  of  a new  society;  but  this 
was  an  incidental  consequence,  resulting  from  the  Found- 
er’s success  in  effecting  his  original  and  always  principal 
purpose — “ the  conversion  of  the  ungodly.” 

Setting  off  then  from  the  mass  of  facts  before  us  some 
incidental  and  unimportant  peculiarities  of  opinion,  as  well 
as  that  which  belongs  to  its  external  organization  merely, 


138 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM. 


we  are  to  find  in  Methodism  only  that  which  is  identical 
with  the  sense  of  all  the  Protestant  communions,  as  ex- 
pressed in  their  several  confessions,  creeds,  and  articles 
of  religion,  and  which  is  held  by  all  to  be  of  the  very  sub- 
stance of  Christianity  itself.  And  yet,  while  the  theology 
is  entirely  what  we  recognize  as  the  authentic  belief  of 
the  Protestant  Church,  the  product  of  the  Methodistic 
ministrations,  that  is  to  say,  the  general  or  average  pro- 
duct, apart  from  what  might  be  attributed  to  the  orator- 
ical powers  of  individual  preachers,  was  such  as  has  no 
parallel,  even  in  the  most  exciting  moments  of  the  Ref- 
ormation ; nor  has  it  had  any  parallel  in  these  later  times. 
We  are  called  upon  therefore  to  show  what  it  was  which 
constituted  the  visible  difference — vast  as  it  is. 

In  what  proportion  of  instances  the  Methodistic  move- 
ment, which  affected  so  many  thousands  of  hearers  through 
its  forty  years  of  primitive  energy,  did  in  fact  issue  in  pro- 
ducing a “ godly,  righteous,  and  sober  life,”  we  are  not 
now  concerned  to  inquire,  nor  could  such  an  inquiry, 
however  laboriously  instituted,  yield  any  satisfactory  re- 
sult. What  we  have  to  do  with  is“not  that  which  can  be 
known  only  in  Heaven ; but  that  which  is  patent  and  un- 
questionable, namely — that  Protestant  doctrine,  proclaim- 
ed by  men  variously  gifted  and  qualified,  did,  through  a 
course  of  years,  and  wherever  carried,  affect  the  minds  of 
thousands  of  persons,  not  in  the  way  of  a transient  excite- 
ment, but  effectively  and  permanently.  The  very  same 
things  had  been  affirmed,  from  year  to  year,  by  able  and 
sincere  preachers,  in  the  hearing  of  congregations,  as- 
senting to  all  they  heard — not  indeed  altogether  without 
effect ; yet  with  no  such  effect  as  that  which  ordinarily, 
if  not  invariably,  attended  the  Methodistic  preaching. 
Nor,  if  we  look  beyond  the  pale  of  religious  influence, 
had  any  previous  ministrations  of  the  same  Protestant 
doctrines  taken  hold,  as  this  did,  or  in  any  remarkable 
manner,  of  the  untaught  masses  of  the  people — 4;he  non-at- 
tendants upon  public  worship — the  heathen  million  that 
circulates  every  Sunday  around  churches  and  chapels. 


ITS  FIRST  ELEMENT. 


139 


Let  it  be  said — and  we  hold  it  as  an  undoubted  truth, 
and  a truth  apart  from  which  the  facts  before  us  must  be 
wholly  inexplicable — that  the  Methodistic  proclamation 
of  the  Gospel  was  rendered  effective  by  a Divine  Energy, 
granted  at  that  time,  in  a sovereign  manner,  and  in  an 
unwonted  degree ; but  this  truth  remembered  always,  as 
it  ought,  the  question  returns — What  were  the  principal 
elements  of  that  religious  impression  which  the  Meth- 
odistic preaching  so  generally  produced  ? This  question 
must,  for  convenience  sake,  be  answered  in  a distributive 
order,  or  under  several  heads,  although  in  fact  what  we 
have  to  consider  separately,  constitutes  a whole  that  is 
indivisible. 

There  are  principles  in  human  nature — as  well  intel- 
lectual as  moral — which,  although  inherent  in  its  struc- 
ture, may,  and  often  do,  remain  latent  as  to  any  effect, 
not  in  individuals  merely,  but  in  entire  races  of  men,  and 
that  through  long  centuries,  and  even  where  civilization 
has  wrought  its  effects  partially  upon  them.  Those  vast 
diversities  of  condition,  moral,  intellectual,  and  social, 
which  affect  the  several  branches  of  the  human  family, 
resolve  themselves,  for  the  most  part,  into  instances  of 
this  kind  : that  is  to  say,  of  the  activity  or  the  quiescence 
of  certain  elements  of  human  nature.  Man  is  the  only  one 
of  the  animated  orders  that  is  liable  to  any  such  oblitera- 
tion of  his  original  faculties — and  so,  he  is  the  only  being 
that  falls  out  of  his  place,  and  fails,  in  so  many  instances, 
to  reach  the  average  level  of  development,  proper  to  his 
order.  A striking  instance,  illustrative  of  what  is  here 
affirmed,  is  afforded  in  that  faculty  which,  among  cul- 
tured nations,  is  the  source  of  the  arts  of  life,  of  the  sci- 
ences, and  of  philosophy,  namely — the  abstractive.  This 
faculty — we  see  it  when  once  it  begins  to  be  developed — 
is  of  the  very  substance  of  the  mind : it  is  man’s  distinc- 
tion as  head  of  the  animated  orders ; and  it  is  also  his 
distinction  as  an  intelligent  inspector  of  the  mechanism 
of  the  material  universe,  and  so,  in  a sense,  the  consort 
of  the  Creator.  Nevertheless,  there  are  vast  regions  on 


140 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM : 


the  surface  of  the  earth — regions  that  have  been  occupied 
during  thousands  of  years  by  races  of  the  human  family, 
among  w^hich  this  master-spring  of  the  mind  has  scarcely 
at  all  got  into  play.  Man  has  there  stood  only  a few 
steps  raised  above  the  level  of  the  brute ; — he  has  been 
a wretched  troglodyte,  or  the  tenant  of  a bush  or  hut; 
and  he  has  so  remained  unchanged,  while  four  or  five 
empires,  near  neighboring  to  him,  have  risen,  and  flour- 
ished, and  disappeared  in  their  turn.  And  yet  it  is  cer- 
tain, that  if  at  any  moment  during  that  long  reckoning  of 
silent  centuries  there  had  come  among  these  tribes,  the 
civilized  man — protected  and  favored — carrying  with  him 
his  implements,  his  arts,  and  his  science,  he  might  have 
woke  up  the  dormant  power,  so  that  a nation  might  have 
been  born  in  a day.  If  the  civilization,  the  refinement, 
and  the  philosophy  of  the  civilized  nations  be  a wonder, 
is  not  the  barbarism  of  races  that  are  capable  of  the  same 
by  structure,  and  which  yet  is  perpetuated  through  cycles 
of  time — a still  greater  wonder,  or  we  may  say,  a deep 
mystery?  With  an  instance  such  as  this  before  us,  there 
can  be  no  room  to  think  it  incredible  that  some  principal 
rudiment  of  the  moral  structure  of  human  nature,  should 
also  be  liable  to  a like  dormant  condition,  or  that  whole 
races  of  men,  civilized  or  barbarous,  should,  through 
perhaps  the  entire  period  of  their  national  existence, 
show  only  the  feeblest  indications  of  the  presence  of  such 
a moral  power.  It  is  certain  that  if  the  abstractive  fac- 
ulty were  not  a rudiment  of  man’s  intellectual  structure, 
no  modes  of  excitement,  no  stimulants,  how  powerful  so- 
ever, would  avail  to  convey,  or  to  confer  it.  It  is  mani- 
fest, therefore — perplexing  as  the  fact  may  be — that  so 
principal  a faculty  may,  in  the  instance  of  nations,  and 
through  the  longest  periods  of  time,  be,  as  if  it  were  not. 
If  this  fact  be  perplexing,  when  thought  of  in  its  relation- 
ship to  such  notions  as  we  are  apt  to  form  of  the  Provi- 
dential government  of  the  world,  so,  and  in  a deeper 
sense,  is  the  fact  perplexing  that  races  of  men,  millions 
strong,  have  passed  through  their  allotted  cycles,  and 


ITS  FIRST  ELEMENT. 


141 


have  counted  out  their  destined  centuries,  barely  con- 
scious, if  at  all,  of  their  immortality,  or  of  their  future 
encounter  with  inflexible  justice.  Yet  to  infer  hence  that 
the  religious  consciousness  is  no  part  of  human  nature,  or 
that  man  is  not  born  to  live  again,  would  be  a conclusion 
equally  unphilosophical  and  dangerous. 

The  religious  sense,  that  is  to  say,  a vivid  feeling  of 
our  relationship,  individually,  to  invisible  government — 
hereafter  to  be  reckoned  with,  requires  to  be  distinguish- 
ed from  some  other  principles  of  our  nature  with  which 
it  usually  commingles  itself,  and  with  which  it  may  easily 
be  confounded.  Thus,  in  the  first  place,  the  religious 
sense  is  distinguishable  from  the  moral  sense,  or  that  con- 
sciousness of  right  and  wrong,  which  may  be  fully  devel- 
oped as  far  as  it  is  related  to  the  good  and  evil  of  our 
present  term  of  life,  and  yet  may  bring  with  it  no  refer- 
ence to  a future  life.  Although  the  belief  of  a future  life 
will  not  fail  to  stimulate  the  natural  conscience,  this  pow- 
er, as  the  basis  of  secular  morality,  does  not  spring  from 
any  such  belief,  and  is  often  entirely  independent  of  it. 

Then  again,  the  religious  sense  has  no  inseparable  alli- 
ance with  that  tendency  of  mankind,  so  universally  dis- 
played, to  surround  themselves  with  invisible  powers — 
the  objects  of  immediate  hope  and  dread,  and  which  are 
the  creations  of  the  imagination,  rather  than  of  the  moral 
sense.  Nations  the  most  addicted  to  polytheistic  worship 
have  shown  themselves  less  alive  than  others,  either  to 
the  moral,  or  to  the  religious  feelings. 

While  in  the  midst,  as  w^e  now  are,  of  another  argu- 
ment, it  would  carry  us  too  far  to  attempt  to  illustrate  the 
independence  and  the  sejunctive  tendency  of  the  religious 
and  of  the  moral  sense,  by  taking  even  a glance  at  the 
religious  history  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  of  the  Christ- 
ian Church.  Instead  of  entering  upon  so  various  and 
heavy  a task,  we  may  find,  nearer  home,  sufficient  exem- 
plification of  what  we  have  just  now  to  do  with,  namely, 
that  first  element  of  Methodism  which  continued  to  be 
a prominent  characteristic  of  it,  through  a course  of  years. 


142 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM; 


Taking  an  ordinary  instance  as  sufficient  for  our  pur- 
pose, let  it  be  asked  what  it  is  that  a Christian  minister 
may  believe  that  he  sees  before  him  on  a Sunday  ? He 
may  be  sure  that  there  is  always  much  of  the  diffused 
and  salutary  influence  of  Christian  doctrine  within  the 
compass  of  his  stated  congregation.  With  a few  excep- 
tions (probably)  he  addresses  those  who,  whether  in  the 
way  of  a passive  acquiescence,  or  as  the  result  of  reading 
and  reflection,  have  come  sincerely  to  accept  Christianity 
as  true  : — they  do  “ unfeignedly  believe  the  holy  Gospel.” 
They  do  look  for  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  the 
life  of  the  world  to  come.”  In  this  pulpit-prospect  there 
is  therefore  a wide  range  for  charitable  hope,  and  ground 
enough  on  which  the  pastor’s  consolation  may  rest,  that 
he  has  not  altogether  “ labored  in  vain.” 

Or  to  vary  the  instance,  we  can  many  of  us  recall  the 
recollection  of  those  over-crowding  times  wffien  a preach- 
er of  unmatched  power  and  grace — a perfect  orator,  used 
to  fix  every  eye  upon  himself,  through  his  hour  of  fluent 
and  affluent  sublimities.  How  did  all  faces  gleam  with 
an  intensity  of  intellectual  enjoyment,  longing  to  vent 
itself  in  loud  acclamations  at  every  pause  ! And  when 
that  hour  of  fascination  was  over,  what  looks  of  gratula- 
tion  were  exchanged  among  friends,  from  pew  to  pew  ! 
what  shaking  of  hands,  and  how  many  smiles  and  nods 
passed  to  and  fro,  among  the  delighted  people  ! 

But  now  all  these  pleasurable  indications  must  be  dis- 
missed, for  it  is  a Methodist  of  Wesley’s,  or  of  Whitefield’s 
order  that  is  in  this  same  pulpit.  As  a preacher  he  is  not 
more  sincere  or  right-minded  than  the  last ; and  as  an 
orator,  he  is  far  less  highly  gifted ; he  is  not  so  accom- 
plished a theologian,  nor  in  any  sense  is  he  rather  to  be 
chosen  than  the  other,  as  to  his  dispositions,  or  endow- 
ments, or  as  to  his  creed  ; but  he  is  a Methodist,  and  his 
words  sink  into  the  hearts  of  those  that  hear.  While  he 
speaks,  a suppressed  anxiety  rules  the  spirits  of  the  crowd, 
and  this  feeling  breaks  forth  into  sighs,  on  every  side  : — the 
preacher’s  style  is  not,  in  itself,  oratorically  affecting,  and 


ITS  FIRST  ELEMENT. 


143 


yet  many  weep,  and  an  expression,  not  to  be  simulated,  of 
anguish  and  of  dread,  marks  many  faces.  What  is  it  then 
that  has  taken  place  ? It  is  this,  that  a sense,  deep  seated 
in  the  structure  of  human  nature,  but  which  hitherto  has 
slumbered,  has  suddenly  woke  up.  There  is  a tumult  in 
the  soul,  while  a power  irresistible  is  claiming  its  rights 
over  both  body  and  soul.  Instead  of  that  interchange  of 
smiles  which  lately  had  pervaded  the  congregation,  while 
the  orator  was  doing  his  part,  now  every  man  feels  him- 
self, for  the  hour,  alone  in  that  crowd.  Even  the  preach- 
er is  almost  forgotten  ; for  an  immortal  and  guilty  spirit 
has  come  in  to  the  presence  of  Eternal  Justice.  Within 
the  dismayed  heart  it  is  as  if  the  moral  condition,  hither- 
to unheeded,  were  spread  abroad  for  strictest  scrutiny. 
Quite  gone  from  the  thoughts  are  all  those  accessories 
of  religious  feeling,  which  so  often  in  times  past,  had 
been  the  source  of  agreeable  devout  excitement.  It  is  a 
dread  of  the  supreme  rectitude  that  now  holds  the  mind 
and  heart. 

To  many  who  had  honestly  thought  themselves  relig- 
ious persons  for  twenty  years  or  more,  the  feelings  are 
quite  new  which  now  have  come  into  exercise ; and  such 
persons  are  willing  to  acknowledge  that,  whatever  im- 
pressions of  a religious  kind  may  have  been  produced 
upon  them  heretofore  by  eloquent  preachers,  those  which 
the  voice  of  this  Methodist  has  enkindled  differ  from 
such  feelings,  not  merely  in  degree,  but  in  kind : to  them 
it  is  as  if  a lost  rudiment  of  the  moral  nature  had  sprung 
into  activity.  It  is  a sense  of  the  soul’s  relationship  to  God 
— a relationship  which  nothing  can  dissolve,  and  which 
demands  the  immortality  of  its  subject.  This  awakened 
sense,  at  the  first,  can  be  painful  only ; and  its  activity  is 
an  anguish — an  agony.  The  belief,  or  rather  the  vivid 
consciousness,  of  a future  life,  results  involuntarily  from 
this  new  perception  of  the  infinite  import  of  good  and  evil. 

When  it  is  affirmed,  as  now,  that  the  feeling  excited  by 
the  Methodist  preacher,  and  which  so  powerfully  affects 
the  mass  of  his  hearers,  differs  not  only  in  degree  but  in 


144 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM : 


kind  from  ordinary  religious  emotions,  what  is  intended 
may  be  made  clear  by  a familiar  illustration ; as  thus : 

A man  has  been  trained  from  boyhood  to  the  military 
profession,  and  he  has  spent  the  years  of  youth  and  man- 
hood in  camps,  barracks,  and  garrisons,  and  all  that  be- 
longs to  a soldier’s  life,  or  that  can  belong  to  it,  in  time 
of  peace,  whether  in  the  way  of  reading,  or  of  converse 
with  veterans,  or  of  martial  movement  and  circumstance, 
has  become  part  and  parcel  of  his  nature.  But  at  length 
actual  war  sounds  its  note  in  his  ear  ; and  he  joins  his 
comrades  on  the  field,  and  moves  to  his  position  in  the 
ranks  while  yet  the  morning  mist  hangs  upon  the  slopes 
in  front  of  the  lines  : — in  a moment  a flash  of  fire  and  its 
thunders  is  followed  by  the  fall  of  men  on  either  hand : 
blood  and  moans  begin  this  long  new  day  of  his  life : bat- 
tle is  a reality ; and  although  the  same  subjects  fill  his 
thoughts  now,  as  have  filled  them  heretofore,  his  state  of 
mind,  now  and  then,  differs  not  in  degree  of  feeling  merely, 
but  in  kind. 

Whoever  has  lived  through  hours  or  moments,  of  ex- 
treme peril  or  anguish,  will  know  how  to  find  analogous 
instances.  Even  to  witness  a fatal  shipwreck  from  the 
shore,  or  a conflagration,  \n  which  several  perisli ; or  to 
stumble  in  one’s  path  through  a copse  upon  the  weltering 
body  of  a murdered  man — any  of  these  less  frequent  in- 
cidents may  have  made  an  impression  so  deep  and  indeli- 
ble upon  a sensitive  mind,  as  that  the  years  preceding 
such  an  occurrence  seem  to  belong  to  a state  of  existence 
essentially  unlike  that  of  the  years  subsequent  to  it. 

Preaching,  in  ordinary  times,  produces  an  effect  upon 
practiced  congregations  analogous  indeed  to  the  subjects 
that  are  at  any  time  brought  forward  ; — that  is  to  say,  the 
feeling  of  the  people  is  in  harmony  with  the  feeling  and 
intention  of  the  speaker;  and  beyond  this  rippling  of  the 
glassy  surface,  an  individual,  here  and  there,  is  more  deep- 
ly affected.  But,  as  to  the  mass,  there  is  no  proportion 
whatever — there  is  no  approach  toward  a proportionate 
feeling,  as  related  to  the  import  of  the  principal  facts  upon 


ITS  FIRST  ELEMENT. 


145 


which  the  preacher  insists.  The  difference,  then,  between 
this  preacher  and  the  Methodist  of  the  time  gone  by 
is  of  that  sort  which  the  instances  above  adduced  illus- 
trate: the  one  is  listened  to  with  assent  and  approval — ■ 
every  word  of  the  other  is  as  a shaft  that  rives  the  bosom. 

Whether  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  and  others  of  their 
class,  addressed  Christianized  congregations,  or  the  low- 
est of  the  people,  a wonderful  uniformity  marked  the 
effect  produced,  where  any  effect  at  all  was  produced  ; 
and  whether  the  hearer  was  one  who  had  listened  to  ten 
thousand  sermons,  or  was  now  hearing  his  first,  the  two 
hearers  stood  almost  undistinguished  side  by  side.  But 
this  could  not  have  been  if  the  preacher  had  gone  about 
to  produce  conviction  by  a circuit  of  reasoning ; for  in 
that  case  what  might  have  swayed  one  mind,  would  not 
have  touched  the  other.  What  the  preacher  advanced 
ordinarily,  was  a bare  affirmation  of  that  which  the  hu- 
man mind,  by  its  very  structure,  assents  to  as  true,  when 
it  is  so  affirmed  as  to  take  hold  of  the  conscience.  Hav- 
ing won  this  first  advantage,  that  is  to  say,  having  lodged 
in  the  conscience  his  initial  principle,  he  went  on  to  im- 
prove his  conquest.  In  doing  so  he  sometimes  used  a 
style  which  modern  congregations  could  not  easily  be 
brought  to  tolerate,  and  against  which  some  reasonable 
exceptions  might  no  doubt  be  taken.  Nevertheless,  it 
must  be  the  phraseology  only,  or  the  preacher’s  manner, 
and  his  undue  vehemence,  that  could  be  resented,  at  least 
by  those  who  are  the  frequenters  of  churches;  for  he  does 
nothing  more  than  insist  upon,  and  expound,  that  very 
language  which  is  on  the  lips  of  all  such  persons  habit- 
ually, or  of  all  who  profess  any  form  of  Christian  belief. 

When  that  which  is  so  momentous  is  in  question,  the 
mere  adjuncts  of  the  Methodistic  preaching — its  rudeness, 
perhaps,  or  its  harsh  phrases,  or  its  obsolete  dialect,  should 
be  disregarded.  The  Methodist  asks  for  no  assent  reach- 
ing beyond  the  range  of  our  own  constant  acknowledg- 
ments. But  if  these  things  be  granted,  then  he  expounds 
to  us  what,  without  his  asking,  we  have  confessed  often ; 


146 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


but  now  the  mind’s  habitual  complacency  has  been  rent 
away  and  dispersed,  and  the  affrighted  hearer  finds  that 
he  can  not,  if  he  would,  “ cloke  or  dissemble  his  sins  be- 
fore the  face  of  Almighty  God  he  feels  and  knows  that 
he  is  indeed  one  who  had  need  deprecate  the  “ wrath  of 
God,”  and  pray  to  be  delivered  from  ‘‘  eternal  damnation.” 
Now,  if  never  before,  he  admits  it  to  be  true  that  he  has 
“ most  justly  provoked”  that  “ wrath  and  indignation 
and  now  he  feels  the  “remembrance  of  his  multiplied  of- 
fenses to  be  grievous,  and  the  burden  of  them  intolerable.” 

If  then  it  be  asked  “ What  was  Methodism  ?”  our  first 
reply  must  be — it  was  the  waking  up  of  a consciousness 
toward  Almighty  God,  which  gave  a meaning  to  expres- 
sions such  as  these. 

But  the  Methodist  preacher  advanced  further  on  this 
ground  ; and  he  spoke,  without  scruple  or  abatement,  of 
the  future  retribution.  Why  should  it  be  required  of  him 
to  evade  the  meaning  of  terms  so  well  authenticated,  and 
that  were  still  in  use  ? “ Eternal  damnation”  was  not  a 
phrase  of  Methodistic  origin  ; nor  was  it  new  to  affirm  it 
to  be  the  “just  reward  of  our  sins.”  Nothing  on  this 
ground  was  added  by  the  preacher  to  the  universal  belief 
— or  the  professed  belief  of  Christendom.  The  fact,  how- 
ever, is  to  be  well  observed  that,  while  insisting  with  un- 
wonted urgency  upon  this  dread  article  of  catholic  belief, 
the  personal  temper,  neither  of  the  Wesleys,  nor  of  White- 
field,  nor  of  any  of  the  more  noted  preachers,  was  in  any 
degree  morose,  gloomy,  acrid,  or  wrathful.  A temper 
the  contrary  of  this  was  the  characteristic  of  this  band  of 
men.  If  some  few  of  the  lay  preachers  were  fierce  or 
stern  in  their  dispositions,  it  was  not  so  with  the  chiefs. 
Methodism — let  us  note  the  fact — was  not  ushered  into 
the  world  by  a company  of  brazen-tongued  and  fiery 
zealots.  Wesley  by  temperament  was  joyous,  White- 
field  loving,  and  in  respect  of  mildness  of  temper  and  be- 
nevolence, they  and  their  colleagues  stand  in  very  favora- 
ble contrast  with  the  Puritans,  as  well  as  with  many  of 
the  German,  Swiss,  and  English  Reformers.  In  speaking 


ITS  SECOND  ELEMENT. 


147 


as  they  did  of  the  “ wrath  to  come,”  they  are  exempt  from 
the  imputation  either  of  a malign  fanaticism,  or  of  a pre- 
sumptuous exaggeration  of  the  existing  doctrine  thereto 
relating ; nor  does  it  appear  that  they  were  in  fact  ex 
cepted  against  by  their  contemporaries  on  this  ground. 
They  thought  and  spoke  as  Baxter,  and  as  Luther,  and  as 
the  divines  of  earlier  times  had  thought  and  spoken. 

If  we  are  willing  to  trace  the  hand  of  God  in  the  Meth- 
odistic  movement  of  the  last  century,  we  should  acknowl- 
edge it  in  this  instance,  that  it  took  place  at  the  very  verge 
of  that  period  when  the  ancient  belief  as  to  future  punish- 
ment was  still  entire.  These  preachers  therefore  employ- 
ed the  doctrine  they  found  ready  to  their  hand,  without 
thinking  themselves  obliged  to  maintain  it  against  any 
prevalent  gainsaying.  Any  such  feeling  would  have  given 
a controversial  air  to  that  which,  to  produce  its  direct  and 
proper  effect,  must  be  affirmed  peremptorily,  and  as  if 
assented  to  by  the  hearer.  If  the  preacher  had  abated 
these  affirmations,  in  compliance  with  a known  contrary 
opinion,  he  would  have  forfeited  his  power : if  he  had  gone 
about  to  sustain  them  with  argument,  he  would  often  have 
failed,  and  often  have  run  into  exaggerations. 

A new  Methodism — a Methodism  confronting  the  Chris- 
tian, and  the  unchristian  mind  of  this  present  time,  would 
find  itself  in  a very  different  position;  but  we  here  touch  a 
subject  which  may  be  better  considered  in  another  place 


THE  SECOND  ELEMENT  OF  METHODISM. 

As  the  FIRST  element  of  that  revival  which  Methodism 
so  extensively  effected,  we  have  thus  alleged  to  be  an 
awakening  of  the  dormant  religious  consciousness,  or  in- 
nate sense  of  our  relationship  to  God,  the  righteous  Judge. 
This  religious  consciousness,  as  it  goes  far  beyond  the 
vange  of  that  moral  sense  which  regards  the  obligations 
of  this  life,  so  does  it  vastly  exceed,  and  much  differ  from 


148 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


the  feeling  which  in  ordinary  times,  pervades  Christian- 
ized communities.  But  then,  how  deep  soever  and  intense 
for  a time,  this  awakened  consciousness  may  be,  there 
does  not  necessarily  result  from  it  any  permanent  spirit- 
ual renovation  of  the  minds  in  which  it  takes  place.  The 
tumult  of  his  new  sense  toward  God  may  wholly  subside, 
and  all  the  anguish  and  the  terror  attending  it  may  be  al- 
layed, or  may  be  diverted  by  the  return  of  earthly  pas- 
sions, and  the  soul  may  thus  relapse,  and  often  does  so 
relapse,  into  its  slumber.  But  if  not,  and  if  this  quicken- 
ing proceeds,  there  supervenes  a deeper  feeling  still — a 
consciousness  of  the  relationship  of  God,  the  Father  of 
spirits,  to  the  individual  spirit,  which  is  thus  beginning  to 
live  a life  divine.  This  reflex  idea  is  the  proper  conse- 
quence of  that  which  had  already  taken  possession  of  the 
soul ; and  we  find  in  it  what  we  name  as  the  second  ele- 
ment of  the  Methodistic  revival. 

From  the  commencement  of  our  Lord’s  public  teaching, 
the  spiritual  system  He  proclaimed  stood  out  in  bold  con- 
trast with  every  other  scheme  of  religion,  or  of  philosophy — 
first,  by  presenting  to  the  minds  and  affections  of  men — not 
a pantheistic  idea,  not  a vague  abstraction,  not  a “Deity,” 
but  “ God  the  Father” — an  idea  which  embraces  all  perfec- 
tions, natural  and  moral,  and  represents  them  as  centring 
upon  a Personality,  distinct,  independent  and  individually 
defined.  The  consequence  of  fully  admitting  this  Chris 
tian  idea,  was  a belief  and  feeling  of  the  individual  rela- 
tionship of  God  toward  the  soul  individually.  The  main 
purport  of  our  Lord’s  discourses,  especially  of  those  which 
were  addressed  to  his  immediate  followers,  was  to  imprint 
this  one  idea  upon  their  minds  and  hearts.  Thus  it  was 
that  he  “ manifested  the  Father and,  in  the  use  of  sym- 
bols the  most  peculiar,  he  encouraged  each  of  his  disci- 
ples to  confide  in  the  Divine  regard  toward  himself  indU 
vidually.  This  doctrine,  then  so  new,  and  so  powerful 
always  in  its  effect  upon  the  human  affections,  imparted  to 
dogmatic  Christianity  its  force,  its  animation,  its  warmth  ; 
and  a renovation  of  this  belief  has  attended  every  remark- 


ITS  SECOND  ELEMENT. 


149 


able  season  of  religious  refreshment.  In  a most  decisive 
manner  it  attached  to  the  Methodistic  revival. 

While,  ho^vever,  the  personal  ministry  of  Christ,  and  its 
intention,  as  embodied  in  his  discourses,  seemed  to  relate 
mainly  to  this  principle  of  the  Divine  regard  to  each  soul, 
and  the  tendency  of  which,  if  not  otherwise  counterbal 
anced,  would  be  to  insulate  the  human  spirit — the  Apos 
ties,  in  giving  Christianity  to  the  world  as  a visible 
scheme,  or  Church  system,  brought  foward  another  prin- 
ciple, namely,  the  relative  and  social,  in  giving  effect  to 
which  men  are  considered  and  treated  less  as  insulated 
beings,  and  more  as  members  of  a body,  embracing  all 
those  who  are  embraced  in  the  affections  of  each,  and 
comprehended  in  the  circle  of  domestic  obligations. 

This  is  a rudiment  of  that  church  idea  which  we  assume 
to  be  as  undoubtedly  apostolic  in  its  origin,  as  the  other 
just  named.  Now  the  various,  or,  as  one  might  say,  the 
multifarious  forms  under  which  the  Christian  system  in 
the  lapse  of  ages  has  put  itself  forward,  might  conven- 
iently be  classified  on  this  very  ground;  that  is  to  say,  as 
having  either  given  expression,  chiejly^  if  not  exclusively, 
to  that  in  the  Gospel  which  concentrates  the  religious  af- 
fections upon  the  individual  relationship  between  God  and 
the  soul ; or  to  that  which  diffuses  the  religious  feelings 
and  renders  them  less  immediate.  In  a classification  such 
as  this,  Methodism  would  take  its  place  along  with  in- 
stances of  the  former  class.  Yet  an  objection  starts  up 
against  such  a decision ; for  it  may  be  said-— “ Has  not 
Methodism  shown  itself  to  be  eminently  a social  scheme?” 
We  grant  that  it  has,  yet  it  is  social  only  so  far  as  the  in- 
dividual convert  is  individually  considered : of  the  apos- 
tolic Church  Idea  it  has  seemed  to  be  little  conscious,  or 
too  unmindful.  It  was  on  this  ground  that  Wesley  in- 
novated the  most,  where  least  he  is  thought  of  as  an  in- 
novator. 

If  the  distinction  we  have  now  to  insist  upon  be  of  a 
kind  that  is  less  obvious  than  some,  it  is  far  from  being 
of  inferior  moment ; and  in  truth,  at  this  time,  it  is  pre- 


150 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


cisely  tnat  distinction  which  most  urgently  needs  to  be 
well  understood,  and  attentively  regarded.  If  we  imagine 
each  of  these  modes  of  Christian  piety  to  be  carried  to 
its  extreme  point,  and  even  to  be  a little  exaggerated, 
then  we  shall  have  before  us  two  broadly-marked  relig- 
ious styles,  as  well  of  feeling  as  of  behavior,  and  between 
which  the  reconciling  principle  has  not  hitherto  been  dis- 
covered, or  not  applied.  That  it  will  be  discovered,  and 
applied  too,  and  that  thus  an  entire  Christianity  shall  at 
length  exhibit  itself,  we  hold  to  be  certain. 

Taken,  therefore,  somewhat  in  its  extreme  form,  for  the 
sake  of  obtaining  a more  decisive  contrast,  the  Church 
Idea  of  Christianity — beyond  which  the  Church  of  Rome 
knows  of  nothing,  and  to  which  the  Church  of  England 
has  given  more  prominence  than  has  been  allowed  it  by 
any  other  of  the  Protestant  communions,  and  more  prom- 
inence than  to  the  opposite,  or  counteractive  idea,  upon 
which  Methodism  wholly  rests — this  Church  Idea  lays  its 
hold  of  all  that  are  born  within  its  circle,  and  it  seals 
them  as  the  property  of  the  Church,  and  treats  them  as 
passive  subjects  (not  individually,  indeed,  but  seriatim 
rather)  in  its  own  appointed  manner,  as  they  arrive  at 
each  epoch  of  their  mortal  journey,  from  the  womb  to  the 
grave : it  duly  engages  for  their  safety  and  welfare,  cer- 
tain conditions  being  complied  with ; and  it  sends  them 
forward,  authoritatively  countersigned,  or  endorsed,  not 
merely  into  the  unseen  world,  but  beyond  its  entrance. 

Now  it  must  not  be  denied  that,  within  the  limits  of 
even  a system  such  as  this,  the  religious  affections  may 
find  room  for  exercise,  and  may  become  intense,  pro- 
found, and  ecstatic.  Nevertheless,  it  is  manifest  that,  so 
long  as  this  Church  Idea  is  held  entire,  or  where  it  is 
open  to  no  disturbance  from  the  contiguity  of  more  ani- 
mated religious  systems,  there  must  belong  to  it  a re- 
serve, a distance,  and  a sense  of  remoteness  from  the  ob- 
ject of  worship.  Piety,  under  this  form  is  mediate  always, 
more  than  immediate;  and  whereas  the  individual  adult 
worshiper  has  reached,  as  a matter  of  course,  and  as  if  ac- 


ITS  SECOND  ELEMENT. 


151 


cording  to  an  invariable  rule  of  official  promotion,  his 
actual  place  in  the  marshaled  host  that  is  moving  forward 
with  a steady  tread  toward  the  world  eternal,  he  is  not 
likely  to  entertain  the  thought  of  his  own  individuality ; nor 
has  he  been  encouraged  to  cherish  the  animating  belief 
that  he,  individually,  is  the  object  of  the  Divine  com- 
placency in  a peculiar  sense. 

How  unlike  this,  on  every  side,  whether  of  feeling,  or 
of  behavior,  or  of  customary  phraseology,  is  that  Idea 
of  Christianity  which,  in  connection  with  our  immediate 
purpose,  we  must  call  the  Methodistic ! Nor  is  the  force 
of  the  contrast  abated,  in  any  sensible  degree,  when  we 
select  our  Methodistic  samples  from  out  of  the  very 
bosom  of  the  Church;  nay,  when  we  not  only  find  our 
instances  within  its  pale,  but  leave  them  there  ! Method- 
ism may  indeed  flourish  within  the  Church ; but  it  will 
not  be  of  it  in  a thoroughly  homogeneous  sense ; or  it 
will  not  do  so  until  that  harmonizing  principle  has  come 
into  operation,  which  shall  give  play  to  the  two  counter- 
active, but  not  incompatible,  rudiments  of  Christianity  it- 
self. Until  then,  even  if  every  phrase  and  every  rubrical 
usage  that  hitherto  has  stood  in  the  way  of  unanimity  and 
conformity  were  removed,  there  must  still  exist  a Chris- 
tianity within  the  Church,  and  a Christianity  out  of  it — 
whether  Methodistic,  or  dissenting.  Those  phrases  and 
those  usages  have  hitherto  served  as  the  means  of  con- 
serving among  us  that  other  Christian  element  which  the 
Church  does  not  recognize  so  distinctly  as  it  might,  and 
to  which,  in  the  last  century,  Methodism  gave  so  broad 
an  expansion. 

The  pulpit  style  of  Wesley,  and  of  Whitefield  too, 
although  in  another  tone,  if  it  might  be  characterized 
in  a single  phrase,  must  be  called  the  individualizing. 
These  preachers,  whose  eye  sparkled  with  a fiery  energy, 
and  whose  hand,  in  every  movement,  seemed  to  have  an 
aim,  as  if  at  a single  bosom,  spoke  to  the  soul  of  every 
hearer,  apart  from  the  thousands  around  him.  “ My 
message  is  to  thee,  sinner ! I stand  here  to-day  to  bring 


152 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


Ikee  to  bethink  thyself  of  thy  past  ways.  Thou  who  dost 
now  appear  in  the  presence  of  thy  God — loathsome  in  thy 
sins — I challenge  and  command  thee  to  bow  thy  stubborn 
neck,  and  to  bend  thy  knee.  Dost  not  thou — even  thou, 
ungrateful  as  thou  hast  been  these  many  years — yea  a 
hardened  rebel  from  thy  mother’s  breast  until  now — dost 
thou  not  hear  the  Saviour  calling  to  thee  to  repent  and 
turn?  Was  it  not  for  thee  that  he  shed  his  blood?  Did 
he  not  carry  thy  sorrows  to  Calvary,  even  thine?  Was 
he  not  wounded  for  thy  transgressions  ? Did  he  not  think 
of  thee,  of  thy  soul,  and  of  all  its  abominations,  that  dark 
night  when  he  lay  in  agony  on  the  ground?  Yes.  It 
was  none  other  than  thy  sins  that  made  him  sweat  blood 
in  that  garden.  But  now,  with  a purpose  of  mercy  in  his 
heart  toward  thy  wretched  soul,  he  calls  thee  to  himself ; 
and  says,  yes,  he  says,  it  to  thee,  ‘ Come  now,  let  us  reason 
together.’  ” 

It  was  thus,  and  often  in  phrases  far  more  emphatic 
and  awakening,  that  a firm  hold  upon  the  human  heart 
was  taken,  and  that  a commencement  was  made  of  that 
life  divine — of  that  converse  of  the  soul  with  the  Shep- 
herd of  souls,  to  which  it  is  the  purport  and  end  of  the 
Christian  dispensation  to  give  effect. 

As  the  proper  and  inevitable  consequence  of  a com- 
mencement such  as  this,  all  those  personally  intense  affec-^ 
tions  come  into  exercise,  which  in  their  variations  of  vivid- 
ness give  a history  to  each  Christian  singly,  and  which 
may  be  narrated  by  him.  It  is  the  development,  and  the 
subsidence,  and  the  renovation,  and  the  progression,  of 
this  theopathy  that  constitute  the  ‘^experience”  of  each, 
and  which  is  customarily  spoken  of  under  the  comprehen- 
sive phrase  of  “ the  dealings  of  God  with  the  soul.”  It  is 
this  individualized  piety  which  furnishes  materials  to  what 
IS  called  “ experimental  preaching it  is  this  that  be- 
comes the  topic  of  conversation  in  classes  and  bands ; it 
is  this  that  has  shed  life  and  fervor  into  the  diaries  and 
letters  of  so  many  eminent  persons,  who  have  been  the 
ornament  of  the  several  Protestant  communions;  and 


ITS  SECOND  ELEMENT. 


153 


in  a word,  it  is  on  this  ground  that  the  exercise  of  a pure 
taste  and  of  Christian  discretion  are  so  much  to  be  desired, 
and  have  so  often  been  lost  sight  of. 

Now  although  this  individualized  spiritual  life  is  much 
older  than  Methodism,  yet  it  must  be  named  as  having 
been  peculiarly  its  characteristic ; and  can  we  read  the 
Book  of  Psalms,  or  our  Lord’s  discourses  with  his  dis- 
ciples, or  the  apostolic  epistles,  and  then  denounce  this 
rudiment  of  Methodism,  as  if  in  itself  it  were  spurious 
and  unwarranted  ? Surely  not ; nevertheless,  when  this 
order  of  religious  feeling  has  been  left  to  expand  itself  un- 
checked, and  when  it  has  received  encouragement,  and 
has  been  exposed  to  stimulants,  it  has  come  to  present 
an  aspect  differing  essentially  from  that  Christianity  ac- 
cording to  the  Church  Idea,  of  which  already  we  have 
spoken ; and  how  incongruous  do  the  two  forms  of  piety 
appear  when,  as  sometimes  has  happened,  the  one  has 
sprung  into  existence  upon  the  very  lap  of  the  other ! or 
when  Methodism  has  courted  the  maternal  caresses  of 
the  Church ! 

The  most  important  innovations  are  often  those  which 
attract  little  or  no  attention  while  they  are  taking  place. 
Wesley  earnestly  deprecated,  for  instance,  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  preaching  hour  in  his  chapels  with  the  hours 
of  divine  worship  in  the  parish  church ; and  he  also  long 
resisted  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  by  his 
preachers.  In  such  things  he  dreaded  innovation ; and 
yet  these  invasions  of  Church  order  were  of  small  mo- 
ment, as  compared  with  that  mighty  revolution  in  Chris- 
tian feeling,  language,  behavior,  which  every  word  al- 
most of  his  sermons,  and  of  his  personal  converse  with 
his  people,  was  bringing  about.  He  did  indeed  vehe- 
mently enjoin  his  followers  to  hold  to  their  parish 
churches ; but  in  the  very  same  breath  he  woke  up  in 
their  hearts  a vivid  individual  feeling,  which  would  in- 
evitably withdraw  them  from  it ; and  this  result  would 
take  place,  even  where  the  ministrations  of  the  Church 
itself  were  animated  by  the  Methodistic  spirit ! Thus  it 


154 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


is  that,  at  this  time,  and  irrespective  entirely  of  all  ques- 
tions of  ecclesiastical  polity,  or  of  external  conformity, 
or  of  non-conformity,  the  religious  commonwealth  (in  the 
Episcopal  Church,  and  out  of  it)  subsists  under  these  two 
types,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  Church  Idea,  and  of  the  Meth- 
odistic.  Great  changes  must  have  place  before  the  two 
shall  coalesce,  or  work  well  together. 

The  writings  of  the  continental  Reformers,  as  also  of 
the  founders  of  the  English  Church,  abundantly  prove 
that  they  were  themselves  alive  to  that  great  Christian 
principle  w^hich  imparts  its  individuality  to  piety.  Their 
own  earnest  style  in  the  pulpit  implies  this ; and  upon  it 
rests  the  Protestant  principle — the  right  of  private  judg- 
ment, as  well  as  the  sacred  obligation  of  witnessing  to  the 
truth,  even  unto  death ; together  with  the  privilege  and 
duty  of  every  man  to  read  and  study  Holy  Scripture  for 
himself.  It  was  from  this  solid  standing  that  the  Reform- 
ers made  head  against  Rome.  Nevertheless,  in  their  re- 
construction of  the  Church,  it  was  the  Church  Idea  that 
became  predominant,  which  thus  was  left  liable,  at  all 
times,  to  those  internal  discords,  and  to  those  convulsions 
and  invasions  which,  by  a deep  necessity,  must  bring  it 
into  peril,  as  often  as  any  great  religious  revival  takes 
place  within,  or  around  it.  The  next  season  of  religious 
reanimation  may  not  perhaps  take  to  itself,  or  bear,  the 
name  and  guise  of  “ Methodism,”  but  inevitably  it  will 
convulse  a communion  which  does  not  distinctly  recog- 
nize what  is  not  included  in  its  own  Idea  of  Christianity. 

It  is  of  the  very  nature  of  animated  piety  that  it  should 
pass  into  the  form  of  an  individual  history ; and  the  more 
profound  this  piety  is,  the  more  decisively  will  it 

become.  And  then  further,  when  he  who,  in  this  intimate 
manner,  surrenders  himself  to  the  influence  of  the  loftier 
revelations  of  the  Christian  system,  and  learns  to  think  of 
himself — albeit  as  one  of  the  most  unworthy,  yet  as  the 
object  of  an  eternal  purpose  of  mercy — when,  in  a word, 
he  has  learned  to  read  in  the  Scriptures  far  more  than 
what,  as  a convert,  he  had  thought  of — when  he  has  pass- 


ITS  SECOND  ELEMENT. 


150 


ed  beyond  the  use  of  milk,  and  knows  how  to  assimilate 
stronger  aliment,  then  will  “ the  life  he  lives  daily”  be  the 
treading  of  a path  which  must  be  trod  alone.  What  is 
meant  is  not  a mystic  absorption  in  the  Divine  Essence 
but  an  animated  correspondence,  from  day  to  day,  from 
hour  to  hour,  carried  on  between  the  redeemed  and  re- 
stored human  spirit  and  the  personal  Redeemer — the 
Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls,  who,  in  terms  the  most  sig- 
nificant, has  invited  and  has  given  ample  warrant  to  this 
“ boldness  of  access”  to  Himself.  Thus  it  is  that  a ripened 
Christian  piety  is  always  in  a sense  seclusive  ; and  thus  is 
it  spoken  of  as  a “ life  that  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God.” 

Nevertheless  the  most  profound  and  elevated  piety  can 
never  be  unsocial — far  from  it;  and,  on  the  contrary,  it 
will  seek  and  find  sympathy  and  communion.  Yet  it  is 
always  a question  to  what  extent,  and  under  what  con- 
ditions, it  will  or  can  do  so.  Or  the  same  inquiry,  in  sub- 
stance, might  be  set  forward  in  other  terms — as  thus,  in 
relation  to  our  immediate  subject  it  might  be  asked — Can 
that  religious  individuality,  which  it  was  the  very  object 
of  the  Methodistic  revival  to  call  forth  and  cherish — can 
it  advance  beyond  a rudimental  condition  when,  in  a 
compulsory  and  mechanical  manner,  it  is  drawn  forth 
from  the  bosom,  and  subjected  to  formal  regulations,  and 
when  it  is  to  be  registered  and  reported  weekly?  This 
is  a grave  question,  and  it  seems  to  bring  into  view  an 
incongruity  in  one  at  least  of  the  forms  into  which  Meth- 
odism has  passed. 

Christian  piety,  developed  according  to  the  Church 
Idea,  will  not  often,  if  ever,  take  to  itself  this  character 
of  individuality  ; but  when  developed  according  to  the 
Methodistic,  or,  as  we  now  say,  the  “ Evangelic”  idea,  it 
seldom  fails  to  do  so ; and  this  is  that  point  of  difference 
between  the  two,  on  the  ground  of  which  the  imputation 
of  enthusiasm  is  used  to  be  thrown  by  the  profane  world, 
and  by  the  formalist  adherents  of  the  Church  principle, 
upon  those  who  profess  a piety  that  is  less  abstract,  and 
more  subjective,  than  their  own. 


156 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM : 


A faulty  style,  easily  fallen  into,  and  not  easily  avoided, 
and  from  which  Methodism  has  never  held  itself  entirely 
free,  gives  color  to  that  imputation  of  enthusiasm  of 
which  we  now  speak.  In  truth  this  imputation  is  more 
than  colorable — it  is  warrantable — when  brought  against 
very  much  which  has  received  the  sanction  of  Methodistic 
and  of  Evangelic  usage.  What  is  here  intended  ought  to 
be  clearly  understood. 

That  conscious  personal  relationship  to  the  Saviour 
Christ,  which  we  have  assumed  to  be  of  the  very  sub- 
stance of  mature  Christian  piety,  and  which  can  never  be 
warrantably  rebuked  as  enthusiastic,  is  by  no  means  iden- 
tical with  the  introverted  spiritual  sensitiveness,  or  the 
overweening  religious  egotism,  or  the  hypochondriac 
moodiness,  which  so  often  comes  in  its  place,  and  is  in- 
considerately accepted  in  its  stead.  The  one  rests  upon  a 
clear  and  ample  foundation  of  scriptural  encouragements  ; 
the  other  must  go  far  before  it  finds  any  substantial  sup- 
port, either  of  precept,  promise,  or  example,  any  where 
within  the  compass  of  the  inspired  writings.  The  im- 
mediate objects  and  excitements  of  the  one  are  those  un 
changing  perfections  of  the  Divine  nature,  the  habitua! 
contemplation  of  which  imparts  stability,  serenity,  dignity, 
to  the  human  spirit,  prevailing  over  its  own  momentary 
variableness.  But,  as  to  the  latter,  its 'objects  are  con- 
centred around  that  same  variableness.  The  fitfulness  of 
every  hour,  the  sombre  color  of  one  mood,  or  the  gayety 
of  another,  the  nameless  ills,  the  dim  surmises,  the  absurd 
fantasies,  which  perturb  misgoverned  minds,  these  are 
the  objects,  the  occasions,  the  springs,  of  that  alternately 
murky  and  giddy  temper  to  the  variations  of  which  the 
phrase  religious  experience”  has  so  often,  and  so  griev- 
ously, been  misapplied. 

That  a substitution  of  the  spurious  for  the  genuine 
should  so  often  take  place  on  this  ground,  can  excite  little 
surprise  ; for  the  genuine  “ hidden  life”  implies  a depth  of 
soul  and  a tranquil  fervor  that  are  not  the  most  common ; 
and  it  implies  instruction,  and  a well-formed  habit  of  medi- 


ITS  SECOND  ELEMENT, 


157 


tation  and  prayer:  it  implies,  moreover,  consistency  and 
moral  tone ; but  as  to  the  other,  its  counterfeit,  nothing 
more  is  required  for  its  production  than  so  much  religious 
perturbation  as  shall  suffice  for  working  upon  the  disor- 
ders, the  inconsistencies,  the  waywardness,  the  ungovern- 
ed tempers,  the  vanity,  the  pride,  the  vexations,  that  are 
incident  to  the  commonest  order  of  minds.  In  any  com- 
munity of  Christian  people,  therefore,  where  we  might 
find  one  who  is  qualified,  if  he  could  be  induced  so  to  do, 
to  speak  of  that  hidden  life  which  gladdens  his  own  heart, 
scores  may  be  met  with  who  are  full  of  their  “experi- 
ence,” and  who  may  easily  be  encouraged  to  say  much 
of  it,  and  so  of  themselves. 

Nevertheless  it  would  be  a serious  practical  error  on 
the  part  of  any  who  should  incline  to  treat  these  instances 
as  cases  of  hypocrisy,  or  of  delusion.  The  world  must, 
perhaps,  be  indulged  in  the  license  it  will  take,  to  deride 
that  which,  wanting  substance  as  it  does,  yet  contains  a 
germ  which,  to  the  world,  is  a problem  always.  A wise 
instructor,  and  one  who  is  loving  as  well  as  wise,  and 
whose  wisdom  has  nothing  in  it  of  vulgar  shrewdness, 
will  know  how  to  turn  the  eye  from  objects  that  are 
sullied  and  marred,  and  that  can  yield  no  peace,  and  in- 
sensibly fix  it  upon  that  which  is  ever  bright  and  constant. 
But  how  shall  any  such  office  of  charity  be  performed  by 
those  whose  own  piety  is  fervent  perhaps,  but  superficial 
and  uninformed,  and  whose  habit  of  mind  and  language  is 
egotistical  ? When,  in  fact,  an  instructor  or  spiritual 
guide  of  this  order  puts  his  stated  question  to  his  class, 
“ What  have  been  the  Lord’s  dealings  with  your  soul,  the 
last  week  ?”  he  invites  the  utterance  of  that  which  not 
only  would  be  better  not  uttered,  but  better  not  remem- 
bered or  thought  of. 

Too  easily  it  has  been  assumed  as  certain  that  this 
style  of  spurious  “ experience”  is  sustained  by  example 
and  precept  of  Scripture.  Those  who  have  allowed 
themselves  to  think  so  would  do  well  to  make  search, 
and  to  bring  together — if  indeed  so  many  are  to  be  found 


158 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM : 


—five  texts  from  the  gospels,  or  epistles,  which,  when 
fairly  interpreted,  might  serve  the  required  purpose.  It 
is  granted,  indeed,  that  the  soul  will  have  its  alternations 
of  hope  and  fear,  of  joy  and  despondency,  of  elation  and 
depression.  This  is  certain ; but  let  the  question  be 
asked,  how  much  regard  is  paid  by  the  inspired  writers  to 
these  fitful  diversities  of  individual  feeling  ? So  much  as 
this — to  enounce  a comprehensive  admonition — “ Is  any 
among  you  merry,  let  him  sing  psalms;  is  any  afflicted, 
let  him  pray.”  To  every  joy  and  every  woe,  to  each 
mood,  to  each  affection  the  alternations  of  which  checker 
the  course  of  man,  the  Gospel  furnishes  what  we  need  for 
our  comfort,  or  correction.  But  these  alternations,  having 
sometimes  a real,  and  sometimes  an  imaginary  or  facti- 
tious origin,  become  exaggerated  when  they  are  habitually 
regarded,  and  when  they  are  made  the  subject  of  formal 
question  and  answer. 

It  was  the  proper  consequence  of  the  Methodistic 
preaching  to  call  into  activity  that  life  of  the  soul,  as  in- 
dividually related  to  God,  of  which  now  we  have  spoken, 
and  which  must  be  named  as  one  of  its  distinctive  ele- 
ments. But  it  was  a consequence  not  to  be  desired,  and 
yet  not  easily  averted,  that  this  preaching,  and  the  social 
economy  which  sprung  out  of  it,  should  have  the  effect  of 
diffusing  among  all  religious  communities  an  unreal  style 
which  the  Scriptures  do  not  authorize.  This  mistaken 
pietism  has,  however,  received  some  check,  and  in  an  ef- 
fective manner,  for  amid  those  various  labors  of  Christian 
benevolence  which  have  become  the  characteristic  of  these 
times,  the  religious  thoughts  and  affections  of  Christian  peo- 
ple, and  especially  of  the  young,  meet  their  legitimate  ob- 
jects, and  are  healthfully  engaged.  In  the  place  of  an  intro- 
verted spiritual  egotism  there  has  come  in  among  us  a la- 
borious, and  often  a self-denying  and  warm-hearted,  philan- 
thropy— a good  exchange  indeed ! and  if  Methodism  must 
bear  the  blame  of  having  generated  the  former,  it  may 
fairly  challenge  as  its  own  a large  portion  of  the  praise, 
or  the  humble  gratulation,  which  is  the  due  of  the  latter. 


ITS  THIRD  ELEMENT. 


159 


THE  THIRD  ELEMENT  OF  METHODISM. 

There  may  have  been,  in  some  instances,  more  than  a 
colorable  pretext  for  the  opprobrium  thrown  upon  Meth- 
odism, that  it  has  produced  insanity ; for  if  we  imagine 
those  emotions  only  which  thus  far  we  have  spoken  of, 
and  none  of  a more  tranquil  kind,  to  be  taking  effect  upon 
feeble  or  distempered  minds,  it  can  be  no  wonder  if  rea- 
son gives  way.  In  truth,  not  merely  the  weak,  but  the 
strongest  minds  might  be  seen  to  break  down  beneath  those 
feelings  of  anguish  and  dismay  which  powerful  religious 
impressions,  of  one  kind,  unabated,  are  likely  to  excite. 
It  can  not  seem  strange  that  human  nature  should  be  con- 
vulsed by  ungovernable  terrors  when  it  wakes,  up  as  in  a 
moment,  in  presence  of  the  unseen  and  eternal  world,  and 
when  it  becomes  vividly  conscious,  at  once  of  its  own 
immortality,  and  of  that  which  renders  the  thought  of 
immortality  appalling — the  sense  of  accumulated  guilti- 
ness. The  wonder  is,  rather,  that  such  awakenings  do  not 
shatter  every  bosom  within  which  they  take  place. 

But  the  same  Methodism  which  produced  this  agitation 
carried  with  it  also  the  proper  counteractive  motives : or 
let  it  rather  be  said,  that  it  brought  with  it  that  Gospel 
which  wounds,  only  that  it  may  heal.  The  same  human 
nature  which  betrays  its  infirmity  when  it  is  borne  upon 
by  powerful  motives  of  one  kind  only,  or  by  unadjusted 
motives,  alternately — as,  for  instance,  by  hope  and  fear, 
displays — may  we  not  say  it — its  innate  grandeur,  and 
affords  a sure  indication  of  its  immortal  destiny,  when, 
although  the  forces  that  act  upon  it  are  severally  of  the 
highest  intensity,  these  forces  are  so  balanced  as  to  es- 
tablish themselves  in  equilibrium,  in  relation  to  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  faculties.  This  balance,  or  counterac- 
tion of  motives  is,  as  we  know,  the  spring  of  tranquil 
power  and  of  productive  energy  in  the  highest  order  of 
minds ; and  to  others  less  distinguished,  it  secures  peace 
and  a fruitful  activity. 


160 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


It  may  be  that,  while  diverted  or  distracted  amidst  the 
shifting  objects  and  interests  of  the  present  life,  we  do  but 
imperfectly  feel  how  important — how  indispensable  to  our 
well-being  is  this  equilibrium  of  motives,  especially  when 
these  are  of  a powerful  kind.  But  to  those  whose  habit 
of  mind  is  meditative  and  excursive  it  will  often  have  hap- 
pened— in  a musing  hour — to  fall  into  perplexities,  when 
endeavoring  to  imagine  what  that  condition  of  the  moral 
faculties,  and  of  the  sympathies  belonging  to  this  life  must 
be,  which  shall  render  a state  of  undisturbed  felicity  joom- 
hie  in  the  next,  when  that  shall  have  been  seen  and  known, 
the  knowledge  of  which  now  could  consist  with  no  tran- 
quillity, much  less  with  felicity.  Yet  as  this  knowledge 
of  the  alternatives  of  immortality  can  not  be  supposed  to 
undergo  erasure  from  the  mind  that  has  once  admitted  it, 
we  are  compelled  to  imagine  that  the  future  ‘‘  fullness  of 
joy”  will  arise  from  a true  harmonizing  of  emotions  brought 
about  in  some  mode  bearing  analogy  to  that  which,  in 
the  present  state,  secures  peace  to  even  the  most  sensi- 
tive Christian  mind. 

No  human  mind,  probably,  in  the  present  state,  has  en- 
tirely succeeded  in  working  its  way  out  from  among  the 
perplexities  to  which  we  now  refer,  for  they  attach  to  our 
position,  as  social  beings,  very  imperfectly  alive,  as  we 
are,  to  those  higher  relationships,  that  are  to  be  unfolded 
in  our  after  state.  Nevertheless,  we  may  with  confidence 
advance  a step  in  saying,  negatively,  concerning  this  fu- 
ture harmony  of  the  soul,  which  is  to  consist  with  its 
happiness,  and  with  its  knowledge  of  that  which  if  now 
known  and  contemplated  must  overthow  the  firmest  mind 
— that  it  will  not  arise  from  the  mere  balancing  of  oppo- 
site considerations — so  much  set  down  on  the  one  side, 
outweighed  by  so  much  more  on  the  other  side — which 
balance,  showing  a clear  excess  of  what  is  favorable  and 
bright,  the  mind  assents,  once  for  all,  to  the  product,  and 
comes  to  the  reasonable  conclusion,  for  itself,  to  be  happy 
forever  ! This  can  not  be.  It  may,  indeed,  be  thus  that 
we  consent  to  reason  ourselves  into  a tranquil  acquiesence 


ITS  THIRD  ELEMENT. 


161 


with  our  own  lot  in  life,  as  being  on  the  whole  eligible ; 
but  it  is  not  thus,  or  in  any  such  manner,  that  the  deepest 
elements  of  our  nature  are  hereafter  to  be  forced  into  ad- 
justm.ent.  The  felicity  of  the  good  will  never  be  framed 
out  of  metaphysic  syllogisms,  in  the  manner  that  has  been 
attempted  by  the  misjudging  and  insensitive  theologians 
of  a scholastic  age. 

It  must  be  on  some  other  path  that  spirits,  moulded 
after  the  fashion  of  human  nature,  may  hereafter  reach  a 
ground  of  peace  and  joy.  In  this  state  we  must  always 
fail  to  give  body  and  form  to  that  which  belongs  to  an- 
other state ; yet  we  may  be  sure,  thus  far,  that  a tranquil 
happiness  which  is  not  founded,  either  upon  an  oblivion 
of  what  has  once  been  known,  or  upon  grounds  of  formal 
calculation,  may  be* the  product  of  the  due  adjustment  of 
the  moral  faculties.  Whatever  may  be  the  intensity  of  any 
one  class  of  feelings,  it  is  certain  that  feelings  of  another 
class,  being  the  proper  counterpoise  of  the  first,  may  be 
brougiit  to  bear  upon  it.  The  finite  spirit — retaining  un- 
abated its  sensibilities,  and  having  forfeited  none  of  its 
past  experiences — may  be  imagined  to  reach  its  place  of 
rest,  when  borne  upon  on  all  sides  by  forces  which,  singly 
would  crush  it. 

By  following  upon  this  path  a step  or  two  further,  we 
come  in  sight  of  that  which  we  are  now  in  search  of— 
namely,  that  which  was  the  principal,  and  the  harmonizing 
element  of  the  Methodistic  revival. 

Whatever  is  proper  to  human  nature,  inclusive  of  its 
most  vivid  and  its  most  peculiar  sensibilities,  belonged  to 
Him  who,  when  he  took  that  nature  to  himself,  as  his 
own,  blended  it  forever  with  the  Infinite  Perfections.  It 
is  as  one  Being — finite  and  Infinite — sensitive  as  the  finite, 
‘‘  ever  blessed’’  as  the  Infinite — that  He  liveth  who  is  the 
one  Christ — our  God  and  Saviour ; and  so  is  the  Repre- 
sentative, and  the  Head,  and  the  Ruler  of  the  human 
family.  Whatever  else,  of  an  adjunctive  kind,  hitherto 
unthought  of,  and  unimagined,  the  future  life  shall  reveal, 
undoubtedly  it  shall  bring  near  to  the  consciousness  of 


162 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


every  human  spirit  its  own  indissoluble  relationship  to  the 
Divine  nature,  through  Him  who  is  God  and  Man — bright 
in  eternal  attributes  ; bright  also  in  every  grace  of  a per- 
fect humanity  ! 

Now  on  any  occasion  of  unusual  peril  or  anxiety,  when 
tumultuous  emotions  are  bearing  with  distracting  force 
upon  an  infirm  and  sensitive  nature,  if  one  who  is  so  suf- 
fering does  but  come  into  the  society  of  a greater  mind, 
known  and  seen  to  be  at  once  cognizant  of  all  facts  and 
circumstances,  and  as  much  alive  as  itself  to  them  all,  and 
which  yet  shows  a placid  brow,  and  an  eye  beaming  with 
hope  and  love,  the  mere  contiguity  of  such  a superior 
spirit,  with  a word  of  assurance  and  sympathy,  how  does 
it  allay  the  inward  tempest,  how  does  it  impart  hope  and 
comfort ! In  such  an  instance — and  such  belong  to  the 
circle  of  human  experience — the  reanimated  spirit,  al- 
though it  could  not  have  reasoned  itself  into  tranquillity, 
yet  it  has  caught  it,  and  is  now  silently  partaking  of  a 
harmony  not  its  own. 

The  application  of  this  analogy  to  our  present  purpose 
is  not  difficult.  Although  the  human  mind,  in  its  present 
condition,  must  always  fail  in  its  endeavor  to  bring  itself 
into  a position  such  as  it  may  be  imagined  to  occupy  in 
the  future  state,  we  may  without  hesitation  affirm  from 
what  source  must  spring  that  new  class  of  feelings  among 
which  the  human  spirit  is  to  find  its  equilibrium.  These 
rudiments  of  joy — a joy  not  unconscious  of  contrary  im- 
pulses, nor  oblivious  of  them,  and  yet  full  and  secure — 
must  be  the  product  of  the  soul’s  contiguity  with  Him 
whose  own  blessedness  blends  what  is  peculiar  both  to 
the  Divine  and  human  natures. 

But  now  how  far  may  a consciousness  analogous  to  this, 
which  we  allege  as  belonging  to  a future  state,  be  par- 
taken of  by  those  who  still  tread  this  low  ground  of  dim 
perceptions,  and  of  faith  ? An  answer  to  a question  such 
as  this  may  best  be  obtained  by  following  the  course  of 
an  individual  mind  in  its  progress  onward,  from  a low  to- 
ward a higher  position.  Let  us,  then,  bring  before  us  an 


ITS  THIRD  ELEMENT. 


163 


instance  of  which  many,  every  way  similar,  might  be 
adduced.  An  individual  history  will  give  the  more  dis- 
tinctness to  that  comparison  which  we  have  in  view 
between  one  condition  of  a Christian  community  and  an- 
other, when  no  difference  as  to  articles  of  belief  has  had 
place,  or  would  be  admitted. 

We  suppose,  then,  that  we  have  before  us  the  religious 
memoirs  of  one  whose  advantage  it  was  to  be  bred  and 
trained  in  the  bosom  of  an  orthodox  and  evangelic  com- 
munity, and  who  there  received — as  without  much  reflec- 
tion, so  without  gainsaying,  and  with  an  acquiescent  and 
respectful  feeling,  the  principal  articles  of  the  Christian 
faith,  as  embodied  in  the  three  creeds  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  or  in  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  ; or  as 
held  and  taught  by  Howe  and  Matthew  Henry.  During 
that  high  season  of  fresh  life  in  which  an  active  mind  is 
pushing  its  way,  and  breaking  for  itself  a path,  hither  and 
thither,  among  the  objects  of  professional  ambition,  or  of 
science,  or  literature,  that  early  indoctrination — or,  as  it 
might  be  called,  the  catechumen’s  inherited  faith — remains 
whole  and  untouched — like  a costume  dress,  which  is  had 
out  and  worn  only  a few  times  in  the  course  of  years. 
But  a time  comes  when  perhaps  the  accidental  looking 
into  a body  of  Divinity,  or  the  reading  a controversial 
book,  or  an  incidental  regard  paid  to  the  history  of 
opinions,  brings  the  gravest  questions  of  Christian  theology 
before  the  now  mature  mind.  An  effective  intellectual 
effort  is  therefore  made,  and  a degree  of  serious  attention 
is  given  to  these  momentous  principles,  involving,  as  they 
do,  not  merely  the  position  which  is  hereafter  to  be  taken 
in  the  religious  community,  but  the  opinion  that  should  be 
formed  of  Christianity  itself,  as  claiming  the  submission  of 
a well  informed  and  upright  mind. 

The  consequence  of  this  process  of  inquiry,  the  biblical 
and  theological,  is,  we  may  suppose,  the  attainment  of  a 
belief  much  in  advance  of  the  catechumen’s  silently  ac- 
cepted creed : — it  is  a personal  possession,  the  fruit  of 
labor  ; it  is  a dogmatic  persuasion,  on  the  ground  of  which 


164 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


a man  may  hold  a serious  argument  with  others,  may  re- 
peat the  creeds  with  intelligence  and  feeling ; and  might 
even  write,  and  profess  his  belief  before  the  world. 

At  those  seasons  when,  whether  from  any  special  cause 
or  not,  devout  emotions  are  in  unusual  activity,  the  mind 
calls  up  its  now  accredited  doctrinal  belief,  and  is  able,  with 
more  or  less  of  feeling,  to  throw  itself  upon  this  ground 
of  religious  hope.  He  who  thus  believes,  thinks,  and  feels, 
is  undoubtedly  in  possession  of  the  faith  of  a Christian 
man  ; and  such  a faith  is  that  of  a large  proportion  of 
those  who  statedly  occupy  pews  in  churches  and  chapels, 
and  who  never  advance  beyond  it. 

Alternations  of  comfort  and  discomfort,  of  confidence 
and  of  misgiving,  are  likely  to  attach  to  this  state  of  mind, 
especially  with  the  ingenuous  and  thoughtful ; and  with 
such  there  will  be  an  uneasy  consciousness  of  the  dispro- 
portion between  its  own  habitual  emotions,  and  the  doc- 
trines it  holds,  which  will  often  thus  express  itself,  and 
such  a one  will  say — “ If  truths  so  unutterably  vast  in 
their  compass,  and  so  momentous,  be  indeed  my  creed 
— if  the  words  I constantly  repeat  mean  what  they  seem 
to  convey,  and  I acknowledge  it  to  be  so,  how  shall  I give 
any  reason  for  my  own  ordinary  state  of  mind,  as  there- 
to related  ? Either  there  must  be  something  misunder- 
stood in  my  own  mind,  when  I say  I believe  such  things, 
or  there  must  yet  be  something  further  on  in  the  Christian 
life,  of  which,  at  present,  I have  had  no  experience.”  The 
consequence  of  such  reflections  as  these  will  be,  the  re- 
newal of  serious  efforts  to  redress,  if  possible,  this  inward 
disproportion — this  variation  of  so  many  degrees  between 
the  soul  and  the  creed,  and  a measure  of  success  may 
attend  these  conscientious  endeavors;  nor  ought  the  gen- 
uineness of  the  religious  conditions,  even  if  it  never  ad- 
vances far  beyond  this  stage  of  alternating  disquiet,  and 
dissatisfaction,  and  hopefulness,  to  be  questioned — that  is 
to  say,  if  it  be  not  brought  into  doubt  on  other  grounds. 

But  at  length  this  Christian  man,  whose  history  we 
uppose  ourselves  to  be  following,  reaches  a new  era  in 


ITS  THIRD  ELEMENT. 


165 


his  course,  and  an  advance  is  made  which  is  so  marked 
and  decisive,  that,  whatever  he  may  have  believed  and 
felt  in  times  past  fades  almost  from  his  recollection,  as 
if  it  were  a dream.  Not  a syllable  of  his  heretofore  pro- 
fessed belief  has  been  displaced,  or  seems  to  need  cor- 
rection. If  required  to  state  in  what  sense  he  under- 
stands certain  passages  in  the  apostolic  writings,  his  reply 
would  be  precisely  the  same  in  words  now  as  at  any 
former  time;  he  would  find  it  difficult,  in  fact,  to  describe, 
in  terms,  the  revolution  which  has  taken  place  in  his  feel- 
ings and  apprehensions,  for  it  consists  in  a consciousness 
to  which  language  gives  no  utterance — a consciousness 
of  the  reality  of  the  First  Truth  of  the  Christian  system. 
With  this  new  sense  is  associated  the  feeling  that  it  has 
been  granted  from  above  ; it  has  come  to  him  as  a be- 
stowment ; he  perfectly  knows  that  it  has  not  been  the 
product  of  the  laborious  workings  of  his  own  reason  ; but 
that  it  is  a gift — as  much  so  as  if  he  had  suddenly  found 
himself  endowed  with  a new  sense,  as  to  material  objects. 

Many  religious  persons,  of  thoughtful  habit,  have  come 
to  a conclusion,  more  or  less  clearly  perceived,  to  this 
effect — namely.  That  inasmuch  as  the  principal  fact  of 
Christianity — the  union  of  the  Divine  and  human  natures 
in  the  person  of  Christ,  and  its  propitiatory  intention  has, 
and  can  have,  no  parallel — no  instance  strictly  analogous, 
and  as  it  includes  far  more  than  a finite  mind  can  com- 
pass or  apprehend,  little  aid,  in  the  way  of  explication  or 
illustration,  or  for  obviating  objections,  ought  to  be  looked 
for  as  derivable  from  the  circle  of  human  agencies,  or  any 
modes  of  proceeding  known  to  us  on  earth.  Much  has 
been  attempted  by  theological  writers  on  this  ground,  and 
perhaps  something  useful  has  been  effected : yet  it  is  but 
little,  at  the  most;  and  the  endeavor  has  speedily  been 
relinquished  by  the  best  ordered  minds.  The  first  truths 
of  Christianity  are  not  indeed  out  of  harmony  with  the 
human  mind  ; but  they  are  quite  beyond  its  experience, 
and  fai  beyond  its  unaided  grasp ; they  are  principles 
which  may  be  symbolized  by  the  things  of  earth,  but  not 


166 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


resembled  to  any  of  them:  they  may  be  announced  in 
words,  but  can  never  be  laid  open  by  any  powers  of 
language ; for  language  has  no  terms  expressive  of  rela- 
tionships such  as  these,  between  the  Infinite  and  the  finite. 
It  is  not  true  that  language  is  so  ambiguous  that  it  may 
not  run  itself  around  these  high  truths,  definitely,  and  so 
as  to  lodge  them  securely  in  a creed  : it  may  do  so ; but 
it  can  never  unfold  what  it  so  conveys  or  defines. 

A step  further  may  yet  be  taken.  Beyond  the  confines 
of  that  region  which  language  may  claim  as  its  domain, 
the  human  mind  does  make  excursions,  and  thus  it  be- 
comes conscious  of  a power  to  admit  more  than  words  or 
phrases  may  convey : but  has  this  faculty  hitherto  fully 
developed  itself?  Every  meditative  mind  feels  that  it 
has  not ; and  hence  comes  the  fervency  of  that  desire 
which  impels  such  minds  to  seek  and  implore  the  bestow- 
ment  of  light  and  truth  as  a free  gift  from  above.  Still 
further  than  this,  it  is  perceived  that  that  Sovereign  Grace 
whence  sprang  the  redemption  of  the  world,  and  the  de- 
liverance of  man  from  sin  and  misery,  implies  (must 
it  not  necessarily  imply  ?)  a correlative  act,  in  each  in- 
stance in  which  this  redemption  takes  effect.  If  to  have 
devised  and  achieved  his  own  salvation  is  a task  utterly 
hopeless  on  the  part  of  man,  so  must  it  surpass  his  facul 
ties,  intellectual  and  moral,  to  bring  himself  individually 
into  communion  with  this  salvation,  or  indeed  to  appre- 
hend it : this  knowledge  of  it,  not  less  than  the  redemption 
itself,  must  be  a bestowment. 

When  at  length  it  is  bestowed — when  what  has  always 
been  believed  on  evidence  of  Scripture  is  brought  home, 
as  a reality,  both  to  the  mind  and  to  the  feelings,  then  the 
hitherto  perturbed  spirit,  which  had  alternately  accepted 
and  mistrusted  its  first  principles,  takes  them  as  its  own, 
and  is  at  rest.  What  was  well  sustained  by  argument 
and  evidence  is  still  seen  to  be  so  sustained  ; but  now  it  is 
known  with  an  assurance  such  as  no  intellectual  effort 
could  convey. 

In  theological  usage,  whatever  is  involved  in  the  first 


ITS  THIRD  ELEMENT. 


167 


truths  of  Christianity  has  come  to  be  treated  of  distinct- 
ively, and  is  argued  under  a dogmatic  form,  as  constitu- 
ting so  many  doctrines.  This  method  may,  in  relation  to 
its  purposes,  be  good  and  necessary  ; but  as  a matter  of 
consciousness — as  a Divine  bestowment  upon  each  soul 
that  receives  it,  it  is  One  Truth — it  is  the  one  effulgent 
mystery,  it  is  the  one  “ great  salvation,”  effected  and 
secured  in  that  ineffable  mode  which  the  inspired  writings 
variously  affirm. 

According  to  the  constitution  of  their  minds,  or  the  dis- 
cipline they  had  individually  passed  through,  or  the  in- 
fluence of  others  over  them,  the  leading  Methodistic 
preachers  gave  prominence  to  this  or  that — separately 
considered — aspect  of  the  one  bright  truth  of  the  coming 
of  the  Eternal  Son  of  the  Father  into  the  world  for  its 
deliverance.  Thus  it  was  that,  with  some  of  them,  the 
primary  or  rudimentary  announcement — which  is  that  of 
the  preacher  of  repentance — namely,  a free  and  full  par- 
don of  sins — was  the  customary  theme  in  the  pulpit ; and 
the  preacher’s  characteristic  motto-text  was  of  this  sort — 
‘‘  In  whom  we  have  redemption,  even  the  forgiveness  of 
sins.”  Another,  taking  up  this  primary  truth,  combined 
it  with  bright  and  enlivening  announcements  of  the  unre- 
stricted intention,  or  universal  availableness,  to  all  man- 
kind, of  this  salvation.  “Christ” — this  is  the  preacher’s 
text — “is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours 
only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  or  this — “ The 
Father  sent  the  Son  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world.” 
Another,  whose  eye  is  fixed  upon  the  grace  and  majesty 
of  Him  who  is  “the  brightness  of  the  Father’s  glory,  and 
the  express  image  of  His  person,”  enlarges  with  pathos 
and  copiousness  of  illustration  upon  those  inexhaustible 
themes  for  which  the  Scriptures  afford  materials,  and 
wffiich  relate  to  the  personal  perfections  of  Him  who,  as 
truly  man,  and  truly  God,  gathers  to  himself  whatever 
can  move  the  profound  and  reverential  affections  of  men. 
To  this  preacher  the  tropical  language  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, when  illuminated  by  the  beams  of  the  New,  fur- 


168 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


nishes  treasures  of  impassioned  discourse — ever  grateful 
to  the  ear,  and  always  listened  to  as  if  heard  for  the  first 
time.  Or,  approaching  the  same  object,  as  from  another 
side,  a preacher  takes  up  the  dogmatic  and  forensic  strain; 
and  in  a style  more  severe,  and  more  logical  and  polem- 
ical, asserts  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  “justification  by 
faith” — faith  itself  being  the  gift  of  God  ; and  conveying 
to  the  guilty  and  convicted  sinner  a “ righteousness”  not 
his  own,  but  “imputed.”  This  preacher,  in  his  style,  is 
textual,  categorical,  consecutive  ; and  he  employs  himself 
much  in  defending  the  position  which  he  has  assumed 
against  all  assailants. 

There  is,  however,  yet  another  style  which  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  Methodistic  dispensation,  and  which, 
while  it  may  seem  to  border  upon  dangers  or  abuses,  has 
— it  must  be  acknowledged — belonged  to  those  whose 
souls  were  of  the  amplest  dimensions — whose  habit  of 
thought  has  been  the  most  rich  and  ruminative,  and  whose 
personal  piety  has  been  the  most  profound  and  ripe.  A 
preacher  of  this  order  takes  his  choice  texts  from  our 
Lord’s  discourses  with  his  disciples,  or  from  those  pas- 
sages in  the  Pauline  Epistles  which  affirm — plainly  or 
symbolically — Christ’s  relationship  to  his  people,  and  his 
headship  to  the  mystic  Church,  and  which  speak  of  him  as 
the  Saviour  of  those  who  were  given  to  him  of  the  Father 
“ from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world.” 

But  from  whatever  side  the  mystery  of  human  salvation 
may  have  been  contemplated  by  the  several  Methodistic 
leaders,  there  was  not  merely  a substantial  unanimity 
among  them  (w^ordy  differences  put  out  of  view)  but  there 
was  a oneness  of  feeling,  pervading  all  minds,  and  which 
became  the  characteristic  of  this  company  of  preachers, 
and  of  those  who  were  trained  under  their  influence. 
This  feeling  was  the  very  contrary  of  the  undefined  and 
dreamy  mysticism  of  the  pietist  school,  the  connection  of 
which  with  the  doctrines  of  Scripture  was  slender  and 
precarious ; whereas  the  Methodistic  feeling  expressed 
itself  in  terms  decisively  Biblical,  whether  correctly  so  or 


ITS  THIRD  ELEMENT. 


169 


not.  Nor  had  it  any  analogy  with  that  pensive  adoration 
of  the  meek  and  suffering  Jesus  which  so  beautifully  de- 
picts itself  in  some  pre-Lutheran  devotional  books  ; for  in 
these  books  the  vital  question  of  the  grounds  of  justifica- 
tion is  never  well  understood.  But  with  the  Method- 
ists, notwithstanding  Wesley’s  cautionary  retractations,  or 
Fletcher’s  counter-arguments,  the  substratum  of  the  pulpit 
instruction  on  all  hands  was  a full,  free,  and  sovereignly- 
bestowed  , salvation,  wrought  and  obtained  for  men  by  the 
Son  of  God,  and  which  might  now’,  in  this  life — even  in 
this  very  hour — be  entered  upon,  and  enjoyed  by  every 
one  who  thereto  consented. 

A vivid  consciousness  of  this  salvation,  brought  con- 
stantly under  correction  and  revision  by  reference  to  the 
Bible,  and  by  an  often-renewed  appeal  to  scriptural  tests 
of  sincerity,  gave  a healthy  tone  to  Methodism,  for  the 
most  part,  and  long  preserved  it  from  subsidence  into  any 
of  those  forms  of  non-scriptural  and  sentimental  excite- 
ment which  so  often  take  the  place  of  effective  piety. 
Methodism  thus  stands  contrasted  also  with  that  intellect- 
ualism  to  which  the  genius  and  eloquence  of  some  few 
noted  preachers  and  popular  writers  of  more  recent  times 
have  given  currency.  Modern  congregations,  disciplined 
— under  such  guidance — in  the  art  and  practice  of  listen- 
ing to  sermons,  as  amateurs,  have  drawn  preachers,  by 
their  plaudits,  more  and  more,  into  this  elaborated  manner 
— the  purport  of  which  is  to  pass  Christianity  through  the 
refining  fires  of  each  successive  system  of  sentimental 
philosophy  that  attracts  ephemeral  attention.  Methodism 
knew  of  no  such  tastes,  no  such  refinements,  and  although 
it  proclaimed  the  Gospel  rudely,  often,  or  under  partial 
aspects,  or  in  objectionable  phrases,  it  was  not  a sophisti- 
cated Christianity  that  it  published : it  was  that  Biblical 
Christianity  which  will  never  cease  to  be  an  amazement, 
a scorn,  an  insoluble  problem  to  all,  of  every  class,  relig- 
iously-minded or  otherwise,  who  have  not  brought  them- 
selves to  the  point  of  an  unconditional  abandonment  of  no- 
tions and  speculations  that  are  of  the  “ earth — earthy.” 

H 


17b 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


During  the  Methodistic  era  the  popularity  of  preachers, 
individually,  resulted  much  less  from  their  personal  ac- 
complishments, or  their  powers  as  orators,  than  from  their 
being  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  doctrine  and  spirit  of 
the  Methodistic  company.  Whoever  it  was  that  thus 
‘‘preached  Christ,’’  was  thronged  every  where,  and  was 
listened  to  as  men  listen  when  the  message  is  to  them  of 
immeasurably  more  moment  than  the  style  and  manner  of 
him  who  may  happen  to  deliver  it.  There  is  a fine  line 
of  demarkation  which  it  would  be  no  easy  task  to  trace 
across  the  broad  field  of  evangelic  pulpit  exercises,  but 
on  the  one  side  of  which  the  message  is  listened  to  and 
thought  of ; and  on  the  other,  the  messenger,  and  his  mode 
and  his  merits  in  delivering  it.  On  the  one  side  of  this  in- 
visible line  is  the  Methodism  of  the  last  century : — on  the 
other,  what  we  may  hear  any  where,  and  every  Sunday ; 
and  let  it  be  acknowledged  that  what  we  may  thus  hear 
is,  for  the  most  part,  sound  and  commendable — sometimes 
admirable,  and  far  from  being  wholly  ineffective ; but  on 
the  Methodistic  side,  if  in  these  times  it  were  to  be  heard, 
there  are  words  of  power,  in  the  hearing  of  which  the 
human  spirit,  vanquished  and  trembling,  yet  full  of  hope, 
bows  in  presence  of  the  Infinite  Majesty,  who,  having 
taken  upon  himself  the  sins  of  the  world,  and  abolished 
death,  is  able,  as  willing,  to  deliver  from  sin  and  wrath  all 
that  come  to  him,  willing  thus  to  be  rescued. 


THE  FOIJBTH  ELEMENT  OF  METHODISM. 

Again  we  have  to  affirm,  in  behalf  of  the  Methodism 
of  the  last  century,  that  which,  if  not  peculiar  to  it,  mark- 
ed it  in  a manner  not  to  be  overlooked  or  easily  misunder 
stood.  Evangelic  Philanthropy,  considered  as  a specific 
class  of  emotions,  or  as  a habit  of  the  moral  nature,  differs, 
in  its  origin,  substance,  and  form,  from  ail  the  cognate 
benevolent  affections : nor  can  it  develop  itself  ever,  ex- 


ITS  FOURTH  ELEMENT. 


171 


cept  in  immediate  and  causal  connection  with  those  im- 
pressions, and  with  that  vivid  consciousness  of  the  Media- 
torial scheme  which  we  have  named  as  the  third,  and  the 
principal  element  of  the  Methodistic  revival. 

As  to  the  benevolent  affections,  it  may  almost  be  said 
that  they  have  been  the  creation  of  Christianity,  operating, 
as  it  has,  in  a diffused  manner,  upon  the  social  system, 
wherever  it  has  rooted  itself  among  the  institutions  of 
countries.  Paganism  knows  little  of  these  emotions,  Mo- 
hammedanism not  much ; but  the  scope  and  encouragement 
given  to  them  by  Romanism  has  redeemed  it  hitherto,  and 
may  yet  avail  to  it  for  much,  in  times  of  religious  com- 
motion. Yet  what  we  have  now  in  view  is  something 
essentially  different  from  that  humane  impulse  which  ex- 
pends itself  in  the  “seven  works  of  mercy,”  or  in  any 
enterprises  or  labors  which  spring  from  the  gentler  sym- 
pathies of  our  nature,  quickened  and  informed  by  the  pre- 
cepts and  encouragements  of  the  Gospel.  Those  words 
of  love  and  power — do  they  not  seem  to  shine  on  the  page 
where  they  stand  ? — “ Then  shall  the  King  say  unto  them 
on  the  right  hand,  inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  these  my 
brethren,  ye  did  it  unto  me” — what  countless  treasures  of 
relief  have  they  not  opened  to  the  wretched,  in  the  lapse 
of  these  eighteen  centuries  ! This  stands  certain  ; but  it 
is  not  our  immediate  object. 

Beyond  this,  the  benevolent  affections,  when  enkindled 
and  enhanced  by  Christian  motives,  take  a wider  range, 
and  prompt  Christian  men  to  engage  in  those  enterprises 
of  mercy  which  have  respect  more  to  the  religious  and 
moral  necessities  of  their  fellows,  than  to  their  bodily  des- 
titution. Those  noble  charities  of  these  times  which  are 
carrying  the  Gospel  out  through  the  pagan  wilderness — 
these  have  their  rise  in  motives  that  are  wholly  approvable 
to  the  Christian  law — “ thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself;”  for  where  we  lodge  Christianity,  with  its  healing 
influences,  and  its  purifying  institutions,  in  the  heart  of  a 
pagan  country,  we  do  that  which  embraces  the  purposes 
of  all  works  of  mercy,  spiritual  and  temporal. 


172 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


Although  that  evangelic  philanthropy  which  we  have 
now  in  view,  as  a principal  element  of  the  early  Method- 
ism, entered  largely,  no  doubt,  into  the  motives  of  those 
with  whom  the  modern  missionary  enterprise  had  its 
origin,  and  of  many  too  of  those  who  have  gone  forth 
among  the  heathen,  yet,  even  at  the  first,  and  much  more 
since  the  first  season  of  fervor,  and  at  present,  when  the 
work  of  evangelizing  the  heathen  world  has  come  to  be 
systematized  on  known  principles  of  social  organization — 
ecclesiastical  and  educationary — missionary  societies  rest 
for  their  support,  and  for  the  zeal  that  gives  effect  to  their 
endeavors,  upon  motives  of  a somewhat  lower  order,  that 
is  to  say,  upon  those  various  considerations  which  Chris- 
tian benevolence  so  amply  supplies,  and  for  which  the 
degradation  and  wretchedness  of  pagan  nations  afford  so 
much  scope. 

Motives  of  this  secondary  order,  intelligible  as  they  are, 
and  warrantable  on  every  ground  of  reason  and  piety,  are 
also  readily  available  on  those  occasions  of  popular  ex- 
citation, and  of  impulsive  agitation,  w^hich  the  ordinary 
working  of  the  evangelic  machinery  brings  before  those 
who  are  responsible  to  their  constituents  for  its  efficient 
maintenance.  Nevertheless,  genuine  and  well  founded  as 
are  these  more  ordinary  motives,  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that,  to  a great  extent,  if  not  absolutely  and  entirely,  they 
are  of  modern,  and  of  veiy  recent  origin : they  belong 
to  our  lately  acquired  habit  of  looking  abroad  upon  the 
world,  geographically,  and  of  considering  what,  until  of 
late,  so  seldom  entered  the  thoughts  even  of  the  best  men 
— the  condition  of  our  brethren  of  mankind  remote  from 
us.  These  benevolent  and  frugiferous  impulses,  stimu- 
lating the  active  faculties,  and  the  affections,  and  which 
bring  so  near  to  our  imaginations,  and  to  our  sympathies, 
the  population  of  a Chinese  city,  or  of  an  island  of  the 
southern  hemisphere,  are  they — in  their  present  form — of 
much  older  date  than  those  amazing  mechanical  inventions 
of  these  last  times  which  almost  annihilate  space  and  time  ? 

The  thoughtful  reader  of  the  New  Testament  can  not 


ITS  FOURTH  ELEMENT. 


173 


have  failed  to  note  the  fact  that,  as  to  this  entire  class  of 
motives,  upon  which  mainly  our  missionary  enterprises 
rest,  as  their  basis — their  reason,  and  their  impulse,  ex- 
ceedingly little  exemplification  of  them — very  little  of  pre- 
cept, or  of  rule,  is  to  be  gathered  from  the  apostolic 
writings.  Instead  of  this,  which  we  are  so  apt  to  think 
we  shall  find  in  abundance,  we  meet,  on  the  one  hand, 
with  precept,  example,  and  encouragement,  applicable  to 
all  occasions  of  common  benevolence,  or  of  a self-denying 
regard  to  the  bodily  wants  and  sufferings  of  those  around 
us.  On  the  other  hand,  and  especially  in  the  Pauline 
epistles,  we  find  an  impulse  of  a far  deeper  origin,  and  of 
more  refined  quality,  and  of  a less  utilitarian  aspect,  and 
which  employs  a dialect  that  is  in  the  strictest  sense  pe- 
culiar to  the  Christian  system.  It  is  to  this  impulse  that 
we  have  now  to  give  attention,  for  it  offers  itself  to  view 
as  a principal  element,  also,  of  the  early  Methodism  ; it  is 
the  spontaneous  accompaniment  of  that  vivid  evangelic 
feeling  of  which  we  have  lately  spoken.  The  elementary 
expansive  principle  of  Christianity  is  not  natural  benevo- 
lence, enhanced  and  spiritualized  by  religious  considera- 
tions : — it  is  a sense,  bestowed  in  an  absolute  manner  from 
on  high  upon  whoever  receives  it,  of  that  which  is  ineffa- 
ble, and  for  the  conveyance  of  which  language  has  no 
terms  or  powers  adequate,  but  which  yet  it  indicates  and 
affirms,  as  when  we  hear  of  the  ‘‘  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ” — a wealth  available  beyond  the  utmost  reach  of 
the  all-grasping  desires  of  the  human  mind,  and  available, 
as  for  the  individual  soul,  so  for  all  human  spirits.  Who- 
ever thus  feels,  first  exults  for  himself,  as  rich  indeed  ; yet 
the  consequent  feeling  follows  so  closely  upon  the  first, 
that  the  two  seem  one ; and  it  is  this  second  impulse 
which  we  assume  as  the  true  missionary  rudiment — the 
earnest,  the  burning  desire  to  make  known  to  all  men 
that  which  passeth  knowledge.”  It  is  in  the  writings 
of  St.  Paul,  to  whom  the  evangelic  mission  was  specially 
confided,  that  we  find — and  scarcely  at  all  elsewhere  in 
the  Apostolic  records — this  which  now  we  have  in  view. 


174 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


That  this  expansive  feeling  is  a bestowment,  specially 
conferred  upon  those  to  whom  an  unlimited  evangelic  com- 
mission is  to  be  granted,  might  be  gathered  from  the  fact 
that  it  barely  indicates  its  presence  in  the  minds  of  those 
of  the  inspired  writers  whose  apostolic  function  was  to  be 
exercised  within  prescribed  boundaries — local  or  ecclesi- 
astical. The  epistle  of  St.  James,  which  so  pointedly  en- 
forces Christ’s  law  of  beneficence,  as  related  to  the  present 
necessities  of  the  poor  and  helpless,*  barely  contains  a 
word  (one  only,  applicable  by  inference)  on  which  we 
might  found  our  modern  evangelizing  labors. j*  No  such 
word  occurs  in  the  epistle  of  St.  Jude.  In  the  epistles  of 
St.  John  there  is  nothing  which,  in  its  direct  or  obvious 
import,  looks  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  the  Christian 
inclosure,  or  at  most,  which  carries  us  by  force  beyond 
that  boundary.  ‘‘  The  whole  world  lieth  in  the  wicked 
one  but  the  modern  missionary  inference  from  this  dark 
affirmation  is  not  subjoined.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
two  epistles  of  St.  Peter  : those  of  the  “ dispersion,”  to 
whom  they  were  addressed,  might  think  their  obligations 
as  Christians  fully  acquitted  so  long  as  they  maintained, 
among  themselves,  purity  of  doctrine  and  of  life,  gave  no 
occasion  to  the  ungodly  to  blaspheme,  and  held  themselves 
ready  always,  when  asked  for  a reason  of  their  hope,  to 
give  it. 

It  is  in  the  writings  of  St.  Paul,  that  is  to  say,  within 
the  compass  of  a few  passages  in  some  of  his  epistles,  and 
in  the  narrative  of  his  labors,  as  given  by  St.  Luke,  that 
are  found  all  that  presents  itself  indicative  of  the  exist- 
ence of  that  expansive  force  which,  in  the  apostolic  age, 
did  actually  carry  the  Gospel  over  the  entire  area  of  the 
Roman  world,  and  probably  far  beyond  its  limits. 

Those  who  have  not  given  attention  especially  to  the 
subject,  may,  in  these  missionary  times,  feel  a momentary 
surprise,  or  even  uneasiness,  when  the  fact  is  first  placed 
before  them — that  the  evangelizing  impulse,  the  motives 
and  considerations  which  have  taken  so  much  hold  of  the 
* James,  i.  27. ; ii.  15. ; and  iii.  17.  t James,  v.  20. 


ITS  FOURTH  ELEMENT. 


175 


modern  Church,  far  from  occupying  a prominent  position 
in  the  New  Testament,  are  found  there  very  scantily. 
Nor  is  this  fact  our  only  ground  of  surprise  ; for  when  the 
few  passages  bearing  upon  this  subject  are  examined,  they 
offer  to  our  view  a species  of  motive  materially  differing 
from  that  which  is  characteristic  of  the  modern  evangeliz- 
ing zeal. 

It  is  only  very  remotely,  or  allusively,  that  the  evangel- 
izing work,  or  its  motives,  is  glanced  at  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  or  in  two  of  the  three  clerical  epistles,  or  in 
that  to  Philemon,  or  in  the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians.  Of  the  passages  referred  to  below,  the  greater 
number  contain  nothing  more  than  an  incidental  reference 
to  the  missionary  work  a few  spread  open  to  our  in- 
spection the  apostolic  mind,  as  related  to  those  labors 
which  carried  him  around  the  circuit  of  the  Roman  world, 
and  in  a retrospect  of  which  he  said— “ I have  fought  a 
good  fight,  I have  finished  my  course.”  But  what  is  the 
complexion  of  these  passages?  It  is  easy  to  describe 
them  negatively.  Although  the  degraded  condition  of  the 
heathen  world  is  spoken  of  in  no  abated  terms,  yet  this 
dark  subject,  brought  forward  in  its  connection  with  a 
theological  argument,  is  not  made  use  of,  or  spread  out  to 
view,  in  its  details,  in  any  such  manner  as  has  become 
customary  with  ourselves ; that  is  to  say — as  furnishing 
a motive  for  missionary  labors.  There  is  not  one  word, 
in  the  compass  of  these  epistles,  that  is  analogous  to 
the  evangelical  statistics,  and  the  geographic  missionary 
sketches  which  are  so  rife  and  frequent  with  ourselves. 
This  “ Apostle  of  the  Gentiles”  never  seems  to  have  com- 
puted the  “millions  of  the  perishing  heathen”  that  were 

* The  passages  in  the  Pauline  Epistles  which,  either  directly  or  by  re- 
mote implication,  seem  to  bear  upon  the  writer’s  commission  as  the  Apos- 
tle of  the  Gentiles — the  Apostolic  Missionary — are  the  following  ; 

Roma-ns,  i.  5.  14.  16;  ix.  24;  x.  14.;  xi.  13;  xv.  9.  16.  1 Corinthians, 

i.  23;  ix.  23;  xii.  10.  28;  2 Corinthians,  ii.  14;  iv.  13;  v.  19;  x.  16; 
xii.  10.  Galatians,  i.  16;  ii.  7,  8,  9.  Ephesians,  iii.  6,  9,  10;  iv.  11, 
12 ; vi.  19.  Philippians,  i.  14.  18.  Colossians,  i.  6.  23.  27.  1 Thessa- 

lonians,  i.  8 ; ii.  2,  16.  2 Timothy,  iv.  5. 


176 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


dwelling  on  this  side  of  the  Danube,  or  beyond  it — on  this 
side  the  Rhone,  or  on  that ; or  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine. 
He  never,  so  far  as  appears,  addressed  Christian  congre- 
gations in  the  incitative  style,  as  if  to  move  them  to  aid 
him  in  accomplishing  his  work.  He  speaks  of  contribu- 
tions for  “ poor  saints  but  never  of  collections  for  propa- 
gating the  Gospel  in  heathen  lands. 

Nor  do  these  epistles  exhibit  any  of  those  well-founded 
and  warrantable  comparisons  between  Christianity  and 
heathenism,  as  to  the  effect  of  each  upon  the  happiness 
and  civilization  of  nations,  which  have  become,  with  our- 
selvesj  a staple  of  missionary  eloquence.  Nor  even,  if  we 
look  to  the  deeper  sources  of  evangelic  zeal,  do  we  find 
the  apostolic  missionary  expatiating,  as  does  the  modern, 
upon  those  saddening  subjects  which  are  opened  before  us 
by  our  meditations  of  the  future  life,  as  related  to  the 
heathen  world.  There  is  nothing  in  them  of  this  sort ; 
yet  it  does  not  follow  that  we  are  therefore  altogether 
wrong;  but  it  does  follow  that  those  incalculable  revolu- 
tions which  have  carried  the  human  mind  so  far  away 
from  the  ground  of  antiquity,  have  given  rise  to  modes  of 
thinking  for  which  we  shall  in  vain  search  the  inspired 
writings,  as  furnishing  either  the  warrant  or  the  example. 
It  is  a fact  noticeable  indeed  that  the  modern  mind — the 
world-wide  philanthropy  of  these  latter  days — finds  its 
like  of  sentiment  and  expression,  and  of  animation,  much 
rather  in  the  prophetic  poetry  of  the  ancient  dispensation, 
than  in  the  writings  of  evangelists  and  apostles.  The 
books  of  Isaiah,  David,  Daniel,  are  the  modern  missionary’s 
treasury  of  texts,  fraught  with  hope. 

Nevertheless  the  fact  returns  upon  us,  that,  although  it 
was  with  views  or  motives  so  remotely  resembling  those 
which  stimulate  our  modern  zeal,  the  Apostle  of  the  Gen- 
tiles did  (this  fact  is  out  of  question)  plant  the  Gospel  to 
an  extent  throughout  the  countries  then  subject  to  Rome, 
which  finds  no  parallel  in  Christian  history  ; or  none  unless 
we  are  willing  to  bring  into  comparison  with  it  the  preach- 
ing of  our  Methodist — Whitefield  ! 


ITS  FOURTH  ELEMENT. 


177 


But  now,  if  there  be  ground  for  any  such  comparison  as 
this,  does  it  offer  to  our  inspection  any  analogy  as  to  the 
prime  impulses  of  the  two  courses  of  evangelic  labor — the 
Apostolic  and  the  Methodistic  ? This  is  a question,  the 
answer  to  which  would  be  full  of  meaning.  And  here  the 
averment  is  boldly  hazarded  that,  unless  he  had,  by  mere 
sympathy,  caught  the  feeling,  and  fallen  into  the  style  of 
those  around  him,  VVhitefield,  as  a platform  orator,  at  a 
modern  missionary  meeting,  would  have  felt  himself  out 
of  his  place,  and  quite  unprovided  with  materials  that 
might  mingle  homogeneously  with  the  speeches  coming 
before,  and  coming  after,  his  own.  Might  it  be  imagined 
that  Whitefield  and  St.  Paul  would  together  stand  apart, 
on  such  an  occasion — rejoicing  indeed  as  listeners  to  the 
Report ; but  both  inclined  rather  to  hear  than  to  speak, 
and  both  of  them  perplexed  as  much  as  delighted  ? 

Those  who  go  forth  with  the  Gospel  in  their  hearts, 
and  on  their  lips,  among  the  impenitent,  may  fix  their  eye 
wholly,  or  mainly,  upon  one  of  these  classes  of  objects  ; or 
upon  each  in  turn  ; as  for  instance — The  missionary  may 
be  chiefly  intent  upon  the  benevolent  design  of  Christian- 
izing a pagan  and  imperfectly  civilized  people,  and  so  of 
conferring  upon  them  those  inestimable  secular  benefits 
which  the  Gospel  brings  in  its  train ; yet  meantime,  not 
unmindful  of  its  bearing  upon  the  future  well-being  of  those 
who  shall  cordially  embrace  it. 

Or,  the  missionary  may  place  before  him  an  object  of  a 
more  abstract  kind,  which  yet  shall  not  exclude  the  benev- 
olent considerations  just  mentioned.  His  ambition  may 
be  inflamed  with  the  hope  of  extending  the  boundaries  of 
his  Church,  and  of  bringing  under  her  spiritual  sway  new 
and  splendid  conquests — regions  now  subject  to  the  powers 
of  darkness,  over  which  she  may  cast  forth  her  line,  and 
where  she  may  erect  the  symbols  of  her  empire.  Such 
has  been  the  prime  impulse,  no  doubt,  of  many,  if  not  most 
of  those  who  have  carried  Romanism  into  heathen  lands. 

Or  again — and  this  is  perhaps  the  feeling  which  is  char- 
acteristically that  of  our  modern  Protestant  Missionaries, 


178 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


combining  itself  with  motives  of  the  kind  first  named,  and 
more  or  less  with  those  which  we  have  yet  to  mention— 
the  missionary  may  chiejly  fix  his  thoughts  upon  the  spirit- 
ual condition  of  the  heathen  individually,  and  may  direct 
his  endeavors  to  the  one  object  of  effecting  the  conversion 
of  those,  individually,  to  whom  he  can  by  any  means  gain 
access.  Assuredly  this  order  of  feeling  and  this  direction 
of  missionary  labors  are  not  reprehensible,  nor  will  they 
altogether  fail  of  producing  their  effect. 

And  yet  the  eye  may  take  another,  and  a higher  range, 
and  it  may  fix  itself,  not  exclusively,  yet  chiefly,  upon  ob- 
jects that,  as  they  are  far  brighter,  so  do  they  impart  more 
animation,  and  prove  themselves  to  be  more  effective 
for  good.  The  modern  missionary,  while  perusing  the 
epistles  of  the  “ Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,”  has,  as  we  have 
said,  often  entertained  a perplexing  question  on  this  very 
ground,  and  has  sought  an  explanation  of  the  startling  fact, 
that  so  very  small  a place  in  them  is  occupied  by  those 
exciting  themes  which  had  so  large  a part  in  engaging 
himself  in  this  arduous  work.  An  allusive  word  or  two — 
an  incidental  phrase,  which  by  implication  may  be  made  to 
carry  a missionary  sense — is  all  that  he  finds  in  these 
epistles  corresponding  with  those  views  and  impulses  that 
constantly  fill  his  own  thoughts. 

But  is  there  nothing  found  in  the  place  of  that  which  he 
looks  for,  and  does  not  find  ? Let  the  modern  missionary 
gather  from  the  writings  of  the  most  successful  of  mission- 
aries what  it  is  which  might  auspiciously  supplant,  in  his 
own  mind,  much  that  hitherto  has  filled  it.  Does  it  not 
seem  that  the  soul  of  this  Missionary — successful  beyond 
all  example  as  a preacher  of  repentance,  existed — if  one 
might  so  speak — in  the  very  blaze  of  that  glory  which  sur- 
rounds the  Mediatorial  scheme  ? To  none  of  those  con- 
siderations which  engage  so  much  our  own  minds,  can  w^e 
imagine  him  to  have  been  wholly  insensible  ; nevertheless 
it  was  to  higher  themes  that  he  reverted ; and  it  was  from 
a far  loftier  position  that  he  looked  abroad  upon  the  field 
of  his  labors.  If  he  thought  of  the  heathen  world  in  its 


ITS  FOURTH  ELEMENT. 


179 


actual  condition;  he  thought  much  more  of  Him  ‘‘  who  was 
reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,”  by  the  Gospel.  If  he 
thought  of  his  ministry  in  preaching  this  Gospel  among 
the  Gentiles,”  it  was  as  that  ministry  was  the  consequence 
of  the  grace  which  had  “ revealed”  the  Son  of  God  “ in 
him” — and  had  “ formed  Christ  in  his  heart,  the  hope  of 
glory.”  He,  no  doubt,  did  think  of  the  spiritual  wretched- 
ness and  utter  destitution  of  the  millions  around  him,  who 
were  “ without  God,  and  without  hope  in  the  world  ;”  but 
such  meditations  (so  we  must  suppose)  were  incidental 
only  to  the  settled  habit  of  his  mind,  which  was  bright  and 
ardent,  and  was  occupied  with  nothing  less  than  “ the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ.”  His  errand,  in  traversing 
sea  and  land,  his  impulse,  and  his  ruling  reason  was,  to 
utter  every  where  the  outbursting  fullness  of  his  own 
heart,  overfull  with  a consciousness  of  the  saving  grace 
and  power  of  Him  in  whom  dwells  the  ‘‘  fullness  of  the 
Godhead  bodily.” 

Here,  then,  is  a state  of  mind — a habit  of  the  soul, 
which,  though  it  does  not  exclude  any  of  those  moving 
considerations  of  Christian-like  philanthropy,  or  of  com- 
mon benevolence  which  have  come  to  take  the  foremost 
place  among  ourselves,  is  clearly  distinguishable  from 
them,  and  is  at  once  of  a more  animating  kind,  is  more 
constant,  more  elevating,  and,  in  fact,  is  found  to  be  more 
effective  for  securing  those  very  ends  which  are  regarded 
by  such  lower  reasons. 

Now  if  we  take  Whitefield  as  our  fittest  instance,  or 
sample  of  the  early  Methodism,  and  if  we  rightly  gather 
from  the  whole  of  the  extant  evidence  touching  his  char- 
acter and  ministry,  what  his  mind  and  motive  was — what 
the  prevailing  habit  of  his  soul,  what  the  foremost  objects 
in  his  view,  he  will  seem  to  take  his  position,  as  an  evan- 
gelist, in  that  very  class  of  which  St.  Paul  is  the  chief,  and 
the  brightest  exemplar.  It  was  as  living  himself  in  the 
effulgence  of  the  Mediatorial  scheme  that  he  went  forth  to 
call  men  to  repentance.  His  motive  was  not  a congeries 
of  reasons  and  considerations  ; it  was  an  impulse,  sponta- 


180 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


neous,  irresistible,  bright,  and  fraught  with  love,  hope,  and 
a sure  anticipation  of  abundant  success.  Wbitefield  did 
not  measure  his  powers,  as  related  to  the  task  he  under- 
took ; nor  could  he  have  drawn  discouragement  from  any 
estimate  formed  of  them  by  others,  as  insufficient  for  the 
purpose.  Not  merely  did  he  look  to,  ask,  and  rely  upon  a 
power  extrinsic  to  himself;  but  he  so  commingled  himself 
with  the  omnipotence  on  which  he  relied,  that  the  thought 
of  his  own  insufficiency  passed  out  of  his  view. 

It  belongs  to  those  evangelizing  motives  that  are  (so 
we  think)  of  a secondary  or  derived  order,  to  be  liable  to 
transmutations,  or  rather  to  be  themselves  always  in  a 
transition  state.  Motives  and  reasons  which  are  at  first  in 
a high  degree  impulsive,  and  which  express  themselves  in 
an  impassioned  or  rhetorical  style,  pass  on,  through  suc- 
cessive stages  of  abatement,  toward  a tranquil  condition 
of  utilitarian  sobriety.  It  is  not  in  the  nature  of  motives 
of  this  order  to  sustain  themselves  in  their  first  freshness 
and  potency.  Whatever  is  composite  tends,  necessarily, 
to  dissolution — its  elements  combining  with  other  elements 
around  it,  in  new  forms.  But  it  was  quite  otherwise  with 
White  field  ; and  the  characteristic  of  his  ministry  was,  as 
we  have  said,  its  undecayed  vitality — its  oneness  of  tone, 
from  the  first  to  the  last.  There  is  a difference  in  this  re- 
spect between  Whitefield  and  Wesley,  which  the  admirers 
of  the  latter  should  not  be  reluctant  to  see  adverted  to : in 
following  the  course  of  his  tong  career,  as  preacher  and 
chief  of  a community,  one  can  not  fail  to  notice  a gradual 
progress,  or  ripening  of  his  views  and  principles : his  fer- 
vor, if  undiminished,  perhaps,  almost  to  the  last,  yet  came 
under  the  control  of  a slowly  acquired  discretion,  and 
spent  itself  in  modes  approvable — if  not  to  the  maxims  of 
worldly  wisddm,  yet  to  principles  which  a merely  secular 
intelligence  recognizes.  More  and  more,  from  the  middle 
period  of  his  course,  toward  its  close,  his  pulpit  energies 
were  engaged  in  repressing  ill  tendencies,  in  forefend- 
ing  apprehended  mischiefs,  and  in  righting  his  societies 
where  they  were  lapsing  into  doctrinal  or  practical  errors. 


ITS  FOURTH  ELEMENT. 


181 


Whitefield  also  gained  wisdom  from  what  he  saw  and 
suffered  ; but  these  wholesome  fruits  of  experience  related 
almost  entirely  to  his  personal  conduct.  He  had  a nice 
tact  and  sense  of  propriety,  and  in  his  later  years  he  held 
himself  exempt  from  imputations  to  which,  at  first,  from 
want  of  caution,  he  had  laid  himself  open.  But  as  to  his 
evangelic  function,  this  small  wisdom — the  wisdom  of 
common  life — it  touched  him  not.  An  ever  deepening 
sense  of  the  richness,  freeness,  and  boundless  sufficiency 
of  that  Gospel  which  he  preached,  held  him  always  to  the 
same  path,  and  made  it  impossible  that  he  should  tread 
upon  a lower  level. 

It  may  well  be  imagined  that  Whitefield,  if  brought  into 
the  very  midst  of  the  modern  missionary  excitement,  and 
required  to  put  his  shoulder  to  this  wheel,  would  have 
found  that  he  had  forfeited  his  power,  and  could  barely 
maintain  a position  of  equality  among  his  colleagues.  Not 
so  Wesley,  who,  with  the  machinery  of  our  great  associa- 
tions under  his  control,  and  with  the  heathen  world  now 
so  near  at  hand  as  it  is,  would  have  thought  himself,  at 
length,  to  have  reached  the  very  position  he  was  born  to 
fill,  with  six  hundred  millions  of  pagans  at  his  feet,  and  a 
revenue  of  a million  sterling,  such  as  he  would  have  made 
it,  at  his  command  ! The  difference  between  Wesley  and 
Whitefield,  on  this  ground,  is  not  simply  this,  that  the  one 
was  eminently  endowed  with  the  governing  faculty — the 
power  of  disposing  and  commanding,  while  the  other  was 
a simple  soul,  distinguished  by  no  such  eminent  intellectual 
qualities:  it  is  more  than  this: — Wesley  truly  walked  in 
the  light  of  the  Gospel ; but  Whitefield  lived  in  the  blaze 
of  it,  as  it  fills  the  upper  heavens. 

Whitefield  is  not  thus  named  as  if  in  disparagement  of 
others  of  the  Methodistic  company,  among  whom  some, 
perhaps,  were  not  at  all  inferior  to  him,  in  this  respect. 
This  elementary  impulse,  which  is  the  exterior  and  in- 
voluntary expression  of  a deeper  feeling,  marks  the  Meth- 
odistic era ; and  it  was  in  various  degrees  the  distinction 
of  this  band  of  men,  and  it  is  that  which  should  entitle 


182 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


them  to  occupy  a prominent  position  in  a genuine  history 
of  Christianity.  On  this  special  ground  where  do  we  find 
their  equals — that  is  to  say,  where,  within  the  compass  of 
Christian  history,  shall  we  find — not  eminent  and  solitary 
instances — but  a company  of  men,  of  untainted  orthodoxy, 
clear  of  sectarian  virulence,  indifferent  to  things  indiffer- 
ent, intent  only  upon  the  first  Truths  ; — in  labors  and  suf- 
ferings equal  to  the  most  zealous,  and  surpassing  perhaps 
all  in  simplicity  of  purpose,  as  embassadors  for  Christ — 
entreating  men  every  where,  ‘‘  in  Christ’s  stead,  to  be  rec- 
onciled to  God.” 

From  out  of  this  elementary  evangelic  impulse  there 
sprang,  after  a time,  and  as  its  proper  consequence,  the 
modern  evangelic  philanthropy — issuing  in  the  missionary 
enterprise ; but  the  two,  though  related  as  cause  and  ef- 
fect, are  not  to  be  confounded,  nor  should  they  be  spoken 
of  as  one  and  the  same.  A wide  unmeasured  space  had 
been  silently  traversed  by  the  Christian  community  during 
the  few  years  that  elapsed  between  the  subsidence  of  the 
Methodistic  energy,  and  the  origination  of  Missionary  and 
Bible  Societies.  In  all  those  instances  of  transition,  or 
transmutation,  in  matters  of  opinion,  feeling,  or  taste, 
which  mark  successive  eras  in  the  history  of  communities, 
that  which  is  the  prominent  characteristic  of  bodies  of 
people,  in  any  one  period,  passes  forward  into  the  next,  as 
the  characteristic  of  individuals;  or,  to  state  the  same 
general  fact  in  other  terms,  there  are  to  be  found,  in  every 
period,  individuals  who  might  well  be  cited  as  the  types  of 
the  period  that  has  just  gone  by.  Whenever,  therefore,  it 
is  affirmed,  concerning  any  definite  moral  or  religious  con- 
dition, that  it  has  passed  away,  such  an  allegation  is  likely 
to  meet  an  animated  contradiction  on  the  part  of  those 
who  find  it  easy  to  name,  among  their  acquaintances, 
more  than  a few  eminent  men,  as  instances  of  the  surviv- 
ance  of  that  which  has  so  been  spoken  of  as  obsolete.  But 
such  instances  are  not  pertinent  when  they  are  thus  ap- 
pealed to.  Periods  rendered  remarkable  by  the  heaving 
activity  and  force  of  certain  moral  elements,  might  be  re- 


ITS  FOURTH  ELEMENT. 


183 


sembled  to  mountain  ranges,  which,  range  after  range,  are 
found  to  rise  abruptly  from  their  roots  on  the  one  side,  and 
to  flow  down  by  easy  slopes,  and  to  send  out  many  offsets 
and  spurs  into  the  plains  on  the  other  side. 

It  would  be  resented  as  a wrong  done  to  the  memories 
of  certain  venerated  men  who  were  the  fathers  of  modern 
missions,  if  it  were  alleged  concerning  them  that  the  evan- 
gelic fervor  which  moved  and  sustained  them  was  at  all  a 
less  simply  constituted  habit  of  the  mind  than  that  of  the 
first  Methodists.  We  waive,  then,  any  such  allegation, 
if  it  may  seem  derogatory  to  those  upon  whom  it  would 
bear ; yet  without  scruple  may  it  be  affirmed  that  the  dif- 
fused feeling  of  the  Christian  community  during  the  past 
Missionary  era  differed  greatly,  in  its  elements,  and  in  its 
composition,  from  that  of  the  Methodistic  period  ; as  again 
that  feeling  has,  since  then,  passed  through  transmutations 
which  make  it  clearly  distinguishable  from  that  which  at 
present  takes  to  itself  the  same  dialect,  and  occupies  the 
same  platform. 

Allowing  all  the  room  for  exceptive  instances  that  can 
fairly  be  claimed  in  their  behalf,  it  must  be  said  that,  al- 
though the  product  and  the  consequences  of  that  visitation 
from  on  high  are  on  all  sides  extant,  the  soul  and  substance 
of  Methodism  have  long  ago  departed,  that  is  to  say,  when 
considered  as  a development  of  the  primary  motives  of 
Evangelic  Philanthropy. 

We  have  affirmed  that  the  Methodism  of  the  last  cen- 
tury was  in  no  theological  sense  a novelty ; yet  that  it  was 
a manifestation  of  elementary  Christian  truths,  such  as  has 
no  parallel : — it  was  a sense  of  those  truths  granted  in  an 
extraordinary  degree  to  the  principal  persons,  and  through 
their  ministry  conveyed  to  thousands  of  the  people. 

It  has,  moreover,  been  said  that,  as  this  Methodism 
stands  strongly  contrasted  with  the  religious  condition  of 
all  communions  at  the  time  when  it  appeared,  so  does  it 
stand  contrasted  (essentially,  if  not  so  strongly)  with  that 
to  which  it  has  since  given  place  throughout  the  Christian 


184 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


Community.  To  some  points  of  this  contrast  we  must 
return  in  concluding  this  volume ; but  to  one  special  point 
of  it  a reference  should  at  once  be  made,  lest  a serious 
misapprehension  should  suggest  itself,  and  should  gain  a 
lodgment  in  the  reader’s  mind. 

Methodism,  we  say,  was  not  an  issuing  of  new  dogmas, 
but  a new  feeling  toward  the  existing  belief — a sense  of 
things  assented  to  ; or,  to  vary  our  phrases,  it  was  a vivid 
CONSCIOUSNESS  of  those  elementary  truths,  or  rather 
which  constitute,  in  substance,  the  Christian  religion.  But 
if  so,  then  was  it  not — if  we  are  willing  to  deduct  from  it 
its  vehemence,  and  its  peculiar  dialect,  and  to  render  it 
liberally  into  the  purer  medium  of  our  spiritualized  philos- 
ophy, w^as  it  not,  or  may  it  not  now  be  regarded  as  nearly 
identical  with  the  system  concerning  which  we  are  assur- 
ed by  the  initiated,  that,  while  it  includes  every  thing  in 
Christianity  which  ought  to  be  regarded  as  essentially  true, 
or  which  can  do  us  any  good,  holds  itself  exempt  from  the 
unintelligible  dogmas,  the  national  symbolisms,  the  tem- 
porary frame-work,  and  the  infantile  myths  of  the  apostolic 
age,  and  of  the  (so  called)  Inspired  Writings  ? “ Method- 

ism, you  say,  was  a soul- stirring  consciousness  of  Christian 
verities.  Yes,  and  our  better  philosophy,  which  abhors  to 
assail  Christianity,  which  venerates  its  founder,  and  which 
appropriates  its  lofty  ethics,  is  also  an  Intuition  : — it  is  a 
deep^  if  not  a soul-stirring  consciousness  of  eternal  verities. 
Its  jargon  deducted,  is  not  then  your  Methodism  the  same 
thing  as  our  Philosophy — better  phrased,  and  better  be- 
haved, and  every  way,  therefore,  a preferable  religion?” 
We  can  not  grant  this  ; — for  instead  of  being  substantially 
identical,  and  m form  only  diverse,  the  two  religions  stand 
in  vehement  contrast,  and  are  forever  irreconcilable ; and 
the  difference  between  them  is  for  this  reason  hopeless  of 
adjustment,  because  it  involves  an  utter  mistake,  on  the 
one  part  or  on  the  other,  as  to  the  very  structure  of  the 
human  mind,  and  its  principles  of  action,  intellectual  and 
moral.  Before  Methodism  could  be  transmuted  into  the 
spiritual  philosophy  of  this  passing  time,  proof  must  be 


ITS  FOURTH  ELEMENT. 


183 


forthcoming,  such  as  shall  convince  us  that  our  settled  be- 
lief concerning  the  mechanism  of  human  nature  is  wholly 
wrong. 

Christianity  assumes,  and  builds  itself  upon,  this  same 
frame- work — such  as  we  understand  it ; and  if  this  foun- 
dation be  indeed  solid,  then  the  modern  philosophy  can 
have  none  ; and  inasmuch  as  we  can  neither  rid  ourselves 
of  our  belief  as  to  human  nature,  nor  of  our  conviction 
concerning  Christianity  as  historically  demonstrable,  nor 
cease  to  see  the  agreement  of  the  one  with  the  other,  we 
can  not  but  hold  the  recent  philosophy  in  small  esteem. 

It  is  very  easy  to  imagine  that  just  so  much  of  the 
Christian  system — theological  or  ethical,  as  this  philosophy 
is  willing  to  recognize,  and  which  it  authenticates,  as  so 
many  portions  of  universal  truth,  might  have  been  con- 
signed to  writings  of  remote  and  unknown  origin,  the 
authority  of  which,  irrespective  entirely  of  any  reference 
to  their  authorship,  or  alleged  inspiration,  should  have  re- 
sulted, simply,  from  the  accordance  of  their  contents  with 
our  innate  sense  of  what  is  good,  true,  and  beneficial.  In 
this  case  w^e  should  have  possessed  a i^eligion — whether 
the  gift  of  Heaven  or  not,  could  not  be  determined — but 
which,  making  its  appeal  to  reason  and  to  our  moral  in- 
tuitions, would  neither  have  asked  for  faith,  nor  could  have 
demanded  submission.  Thus  it  might  have  been. 

But  in  fact  it  is  not  thus  that  Christianity  meets  us. 
Why  it  does  not,  is  a question  to  which  a reply,  under 
several  heads,  may  be  returned  ; there  is,  however,  one 
reason  why  it  should  not  be  so,  which  is  both  obvious  and 
conclusive,  because  it  involves,  as  we  have  just  said,  a 
principle  of  human  nature : this  principle  is  recognized 
and  acted  upon  on  all  occasions. 

A few  minds  excepted,  and  those  not  the  most  vigorous 
always,  or  the  best  constructed,  the  human  mind  does  not 
yield  itself  to  any  very  powerful  impressions,  and  is  not 
effectively  wrought  upon,  by  any  reasons  or  considerations 
that  take  their  rise  wholly  within  itself,  or  which  are  gen- 
erated by  the  mere  interaction  of  its  own  faculties.  In  the 


186 


SUBSTANCE  OF  METHODISM: 


world  of  mind,  not  less  than  in  the  material  world,  jTorce 
implies,  somewhere,  a fixed  point  of  support — a fulcrum,  a 
resistant,  or  reactive  mass~an  exterior,  or  independent 
force,  equivalent  to  the  movement  that  is  required  to  be 
produced.  It  may  well  be  questioned  if  so  much  as  one 
human  mind  has  ever  been  so  constituted  as  to  evolve 
force  from  within  itself.  Incalculable  indeed  are  the 
energies  of  a powerful  mind  when  acting  upon,  or  when 
getting  its  spring  from  that  which  is  exterior  to  itself,  and 
independent ; but  apart  from  such  extrinsic  point  of  rest, 
the  movements  and  the  involutions  of  the  human  mind  are 
not  much  better  or  more  productive  than  a sort  of  inces- 
sant curdling,  or  endless  gyration  of  elements — coming 
round  upon  themselves,  with  fruitless  repetitions. 

The  active  faculties,  and  the  moral  impulses  (if  for  argu- 
ment’s sake  we  allow  a few  exceptive  instances)  become 
productive  at  the  moment  when  some  exterior  fact,  known 
to  bear  upon  our  well-being,  and  which,  if  not  palpable,  is 
still  accepted  as  certain,  presents  itself  before  us  : — then  it 
is  that  we  begin  to  feel,  and  to  act : then  it  is  that  we  wake 
up,  and  that  dreams  are  dispelled,  and  that  the  real  world 
claims  us  as  its  own. 

Who  does  not  know  that  this  is  human  nature  ? How 
perplexing,  then,  would  it  have  been  if  a religion,  profess- 
ing to  be  effective  for  curbing  the  passions,  and  for  ruling 
the  man  in  the  arduous  occasions  of  his  course,  had  itself 
seemed  to  be  unconscious  of  this  first  law  of  the  moral  sys- 
tem, and  had  undertaken  its  task  of  training  us  to  virtue 
and  self-denial  in  contempt  of  it!  It  is  not  so,  but  the 
very  contrary ; and  Christianity  meets  us  on  the  path  of 
passion  and  selfishness — meets  us  with  its  antagonist  force, 
and  with  its  authority — meets  us,  not  as  ^ philosophy^  but 
as  a FACT  ; or  as  a congeries  of  facts — facts  historical,  and 
these  attested  as  any  others  of  the  same  class  may,  and 
should  be ; and  the  very  secret  of  its  power,  when  once  it 
has  caught  the  heedless  ear,  is,  as  one  may  say,  the  ordi- 
nariness of  its  apparatus  of  proof. 

Human  nature  being  such  as  it  is,  and  not  such  as  men 


ITS  FOURTH  ELEMENT. 


187 


of  the  closet  and  dreaming  sentimentalists  would  make  it, 
let  the  relative  forces  of  a religion  of  Philosophy  and  a 
religion  of  Facts  be  brought  into  comparison  in  any  such 
way  as  this  : — Let  us  imagine  a congregation  to  be  listen- 
ing, with  charmed  attention,  to  a lecture  upon  “the  Re- 
ligion of  our  Moral  Intuitions  or  upon  ethical  abstrac- 
tions— the  purest  and  the  most  engaging.  But  we  suppose 
that,  midway  in  this  lecture,  there  enters  some  one,  known 
to  all,  who,  in  a tranquil  and  governed  voice,  and  in  the 
briefest  and  simplest  terms,  states  a fact — new  and  con- 
clusive in  its  bearing  upon  the  welfare  of  all ; remote,  per- 
haps, in  its  consequences,  but  infallibly  certain  to  touch  all 
present.  When  this  announcement  has  well  fixed  itself  in 
the  mind  of  every  hearer — shall  the  lecturer  resume  the 
thread  of  his  discourse,  and  pursue  his  elaborate  reason- 
ing ? It  is  vain  for  him  to  attempt  it.  Every  mind  before 
him  has  wholly  broken  connection  with  his  own,  and  it 
would  be  a hopeless  endeavor  to  win  them  back  to  his  in- 
fluence. The  thoughts  of  all  have  now  come  to  a center- 
ing upon  an  extrinsic  reality — upon  a fact ; and  a class  of 
emotions  altogether  of  another  kind  is  getting  into  play, 
and  is  gaining  supremacy. 

It  is  precisely  thus  that  Christianity,  when  it  is  pro- 
claimed, not  as  a tissue  of  azure  dreams,  but  as  a fact — 
when  it  is  set  forth  as  a series  of  transactions  which  is  now 
in  course,  and  which  hereafter  is  to  reach  its  conclusion, 
takes  effective  hold  of  the  minds  of  men.  Methodism  did 
so  proclaim  the  Gospel,  and  the  people  every  where  were 
awed  by  it,  and  multitudes  became  “obedient  to  the  faith.” 
And  thus  it  is,  we  say,  that  Methodism  and  the  new  philos- 
ophy, would  have  nothing  in  common.  Methodism,  as  its 
very  characteristic,  takes  up  the  apostolic  memento,  and 
thereupon  rests  its  appeal  to  mankind— “ Remember  that 
Jesus  Christ,  of  the  seed  of  David,  is  raised  from  the  dead, 
according  to  my  Gospel.”  The  new  philosophy,  if  it  does 
not  care  to  contradict  this  point  of  history,  holds  it  as  a 
matter  indifferent,  and  inconsequential. 


THE  FOJRM  OF  (WESLEYAN)  METHODISM. 


As  to  its  substance,  Methodism,  Arminian  and  Calvin- 
istic,  may  be  spoken  of  as  one,  although  its  elements  were 
developed  with  some  diversity  under  these  two  modes. 
But  when  Methodistic  organization  comes  to  be  consider- 
ed, then  it  is  solely  Wesleyan  Methodism  that  can  demand 
any  peculiar  attention.  Already  the  fact  has  been  alluded 
to  that,  as  to  Whitefield,  he  never  proposed  it  to  himself  to 
bring  his  converts  within  the  inclosures  of  an  ecclesiastical 
constitution.  Nor  was  any  purpose  of  this  sort  carried 
out  by  Lady  Huntingdon  in  such  manner  as  might  have 
rendered  the  “Connection,”  and  its  apparatus,  and  its 
rules,  an  object  of  much  curiosity,  or  likely  to  yield  in- 
struction if  brought  under  analysis.  Calvinistic  Method- 
ism, after  fertilizing  the  Episcopal  Church,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  Dissenting  communions  on  the  other,  has 
ceased  to  attract  attention  itself,  as  a communion  distin- 
guished from  others. 

Not  so  Wesley’s  Institute,  for  in  this  instance  the  Form 
— the  organization  of  Methodism  offers  itself  to  view  as  a 
fact,  on  every  ground  deserving  of  the  most  attentive  ex- 
amination. 

But  let  a probable  misapprehension  as  to  our  present 
purpose  in  attempting  such  an  analysis  be  distinctly  pre- 
cluded. Are  we  then  so  bold  as  to  entertain  the  thought 
of  schooling  the  extant  Wesleyan  body; — or  do  we  pro- 
pose to  advise  “ Conference,”  or  to  utter  judgment  in 
causes  now  pending  between  it,  and  any  of  its  unruly 
members  ? Certainly  to  no  such  high  purposes  as  these  is 
the  reader,  in  the  present  instance,  to  be  made  a party. 
What  is  actually  intended  comes  within  those  warrantable 
limits  of  remark  to  which  all  human  institutions  are  con- 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


189 


fessedly  open.  Methodism  we  have  spoken  of  as  that 
which  has  long  ago  accomplished  its  purpose,  and  has 
passed  away : to  other  moods  and  modes  of  thinking  it  has 
given  place  ; and  with  its  nominal  representative — the 
modern  Wesleyan  Methodism,  w^e  have  no  more  to  do,  in 
these  pages,  than  with  any  other  existing  religious  body. 

But  the  genuine  Wesleyan  organization — that Society” 
which  was  the  product  of  its  founder’s  mind,  claims  to  be 
considered  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  experiments  in 
ecclesiastical  science  that  has  ever  been  carried  forward. 
In  truth,  it  stands  before  us  alone,  and  without  a parallel, 
on  the  field  of  Church  history,  and  therefore  it  may  well 
engage  the  serious  regard  of  those  who,  in  this  day  of 
actual  and  of  projected  revolution,  or  reform,  are  inquiring 
concerning  the  first  principles  of  Church  Organization. 
Is  it  not  probable,  or  almost  certain,  that,  from  the  contem- 
plation of  so  noted  an  experiment,  carried  on  upon  so  large 
a scale,  much  may  be  learned  touching  the  theory  and 
practice  of  Christian  combination? 

If,  in  fact,  a free  and  unprejudiced  criticism  of  the  Wes- 
leyan church  system  should  seem  to  issue  in  throwing  a 
shade  of  doubt  upon  the  perpetuity  of  the  body,  in  its 
actual  integrity,  and  present  form,  the  writer  must  take 
his  place  among  those  who  would  entertain  any  such  fore- 
bodings with  extreme  reluctance,  and  would  witness  the 
fulfillment  of  them  with  a lively  and  profound  regret. 
One  must  be  strangely  insensible  toward  that  which 
touches  the  most  momentous  interests  of  mankind,  and  be 
accustomed  to  regard  the  well-being  of  our  fellow-men 
under  the  very  narrowest  aspects,  not  to  be  dismayed  at 
the  thought  of  the  breaking  up,  the  suspension,  or  the 
alienation,  of  those  means  of  good  which,  up  to  this  time, 
have  been  effective  to  an  incalculable  extent  toward  mill- 
ions of  men.  How  can  a Christian-hearted  man  take  his 
course,  on  a Sunday  morning,  through  the  streets  of  a 
manufacturing  town,  and  not  fervently  desire  the  undam- 
aged continuance,  and  the  further  extension  of  Wesleyan 
Methodism  ? 


190 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


Nevertheless,  it  would  be  an  ill-judging  weakness,  and 
a miscalculating  caution,  that  would  prohibit  the  sort  of 
inquiry  we  have  now  before  us,  as  if  its  tendency  might 
be  to  accelerate  a result  that  is  foreseen  and  deprecated. 
On  the  contrary — unless  indeed  such  a supposition  should 
be  scouted  as  utterly  presumptuous,  it  might  be  allowable 
to  imagine,  as  possible,  that  suggestions  offered  in  humility 
and  affection,  by  one  who  can  be  influenced  by  no  sinister 
motive,  may,  in  some  indirect  manner,  avail  for  purposes 
of  conservation  and  renovation  toward  the  Wesleyan  body. 
With  very  rare,  if  indeed  any  exceptions,  the  institutions, 
doctrines,  and  usages  of  religious  bodies  have,  hitherto, 
either  been  set  forth,  in  laudatory  terms,  by  adherents 
and  advocates,  or  acrimoniously  assailed  by  antagonists  ; 
or  the  weaknesses  of  such  bodies  have  been  maliciously 
placarded  by  renegades.  May  there  not  be  room,  then, 
for  the  modest  intervention  of  any  whose  only  solicitudes 
and  whose  only  jealousies  relate  to  that  Christianity  which 
is  common  to  all  evangelic  bodies  ? 

A religious  revival  or  reformation  can  never  be  held  ex- 
empt from  the  inconvenience  and  opprobrium  attaching  to 
the  circumstance  of  its  receiving  from  the  world,  or  ac- 
cepting— a NAME.  But  this  disadvantage,  whether  it  be 
of  greater  or  less  amount,  is  a temporary  evil,  and  may  be 
patiently  submitted  to  until  it  wears  itself  away  ; but  the 
founding  of  a Church,  or  communion,  is  another  matter ; 
inasmuch  as  it  is  a work  intended  for  perpetuity,  and  the 
affixation  of  a name  to  a Christian  Institute  can  not  be  re- 
garded in  any  other  light  than  as  a prognostic  of  its  disso- 
lution, at  some  period  not  immeasurably  remote.  Yet 
among  such  designations,  undesirable  as  they  are — one 
and  all,  there  may  be  a choice ; and  it  might  be  well,  and 
it  would  show  wisdom  on  the  part  of  a rising  community, 
frankly  to  take  to  itself,  from  the  world,  a designation 
given  it  in  scorn,  rather  than  to  place,  on  its  own  front,  as 
in  triumph,  the  name  of  its  venerated  founder.  One  in* 
dines  to  think  that,  in  the  eye  of  Heaven,  this  is  an  indis- 
cretion, if  not  an  offense,  which,  though  venial  at  the  first. 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM.  191 

no  merits  in  the  body  shall  avail  to  perpetuate.  It  is  in- 
deed hard  to  believe — when  thinking  of  some  form  of 
Christianity  which  w^e  are  told  is  the  very  purest,  and  the 
loftiest,  that  it  should  continue  forever  to  be  called  after 
the  name  of  its  promulgator,  whether  Luther,  Calvin. 
Barclay,  or  Wesley. 

If  Methodism  had  not  so  early  split  itself  upon  the  Ar- 
minian  and  Calvinistic  controversy,  it  is  probable,  or  k 
may  at  least  be  conjectured,  that  Wesley’s  Institute  mighl 
have  come  down  to  us  exempt  from  the  ominous  prefix 
which  is  now  its  designation — in  law  and  usage.  There 
may  be  reason  to  think,  perhaps,  that  some  oversight  in 
the  framing  of  that  institute  was  such  as  could  not  fail  to 
work  out  its  ill-consequence  in  the  course  of  time ; but 
when  Wesley  failed  to  take  effective  means  for  forbidding 
to  his  friends  and  successors  the  gratification  of  calling 
themselves  and  their  Church  by  his  name,  did  he  not  surely 
doom  it  to  dissolution  ? Wesley,  if  he  had  sternly  enjoined 
his  followers  to  be  content  with  “ Methodism,”  would  have 
consigned  his  ashes  to  an  urn  with  sweeter  odors  than  he 
did  in  indulging  them  with  this  ill-omened  “ Wesleyanism.” 

Once  and  again  the  writer  has  professed  his  entire  faith 
in  Wesley’s  simplicity  of  purpose,  and  his  freedom  from 
personal  vanity,  or  ambition : it  was  from  no  such  vulgar 
impulse  that  he  bequeathed  Wesleyan  Methodism”  to  his 
people.  But,  exempt  he  was  not  from  the  autocratic  sen- 
timent— from  the  Founder’s  self  esteem — from  that — in- 
fatuation— one  must  call  it,  which  works  as  an  irrepressible 
energy  in  the  bosom  of  every  man  who  is  born  to  invent 
— to  originate — to  lead  the  way— to  govern — to  found. 
In  the  view,  or  in  the  feeling  of  the  Inventor  or  Founder, 
the  product  of  his  mind — the  ripened  fruit  of  long  and 
painful  cogitation — the  scheme — the  system — the  mechan 
ism,  which  has  filled  his  thoughts,  waking  and  sleeping, 
from  year  to  year,  has  become,  as  a whole,  and  in  each  of 
its  parts,  even  the  smallest,  identical  with  his  own  personal 
consciousness : to  excind  any  part  of  this  whole  is  the 
same  thing  as  to  amputate  a limb,  or  to  pluck  out  an  eye 


192  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

The  vulgar  will  persist  in  taking  this  strong  feeling  for 
vanity  or  arrogance  ; but  it  is  not  so : it  is  an  illusion  to 
which  almost  the  loftiest  and  the  most  vigorous  minds  have 
been  subject. 

It  is  not  difficult  on  this  ground  to  imagine  Wesley’s 
feeling : it  seemed  to  him  that  his  creation — his  “ Society,” 
would,  as  to  the  integrity  of  its  rules,  its  orders,  its  doc- 
trines, and  its  spirit,  be  more  safe  under  the  guardianship 
of  a personal,  than  under  that  of  an  impersonal  designa- 
tion : and  it  would  be  so,  doubtless,  for  a time ; — but  for 
how  long  a time?  That  a feeling  of  this  sort  did  enter 
into  Wesley’s  views,  and  determine  his  conduct,  is  not  a 
mere  presumption,  for  it  makes  itself  conspicuous  in  those 
injunctions  and  enactments — variously  expressed,  as  they 
are,  and  on  different  occasions  put  forth,  which,  in  a tone 
of  almost  unparalleled  confidence,  impose  upon  his  follow- 
ers— ministers  and  people,  that  very  form  of  belief  which 
he  has  embodied  in  his  own  voluminous  writings.  “My 
Sermons,”  “ my  Exposition,”  “ my  Treatises” — such  and 
such.  It  was  not  arrogance,  not  egotism,  in  the  vulgar 
sense  of  the  word ; but  it  was  the  yielding  to  an  impulse 
which  a higher  wisdom  would  have  taught  him  to  repress, 
and  which  a better  knowledge  of  human  nature  than  he 
seems  to  have  possessed  would  have  shown  him  could 
have  no  other  result,  after  a lapse  of  time,  than  to  place 
“ The  Works  of  the  Reverend  John  Wesley”  on  a high 
shelf,  where  they  will  share  the  fate  of  Calvin’s  Institutes 
at  Geneva:  the  funereal  formula  is  already  uttered  “dust 
to  dust.” 

A voluminous  writer,  or  one  who,  if  not  voluminous,  has 
appeared  before  the  world  frequently,  from  the  middle 
period  of  life,  to  its  later  years,  may  well  be  indulged  in 
so  much  overweening  as  to  think  that  the  body  of  opinions 
maintained  in  his  works,  are  intrinsically  of  rather  more 
value  and  importance  than  he  finds  to  be  attributed  to 
them  in  the  wide  world  of  his  heedless  readers.  A writer 
may  so  think,  and  yet  himself  be  thoroughly  superior  to 
the  vanity  and  egotism  that  attach  to  inferior  minds.  Let 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


193 


this  be  granted  ; but  now,  if  there  be  in  the  structure  of  a 
man’s  mind  a particle  of  the  philosophic  element — if  he  be 
accustomed  to  indulge  in  that  sort  of  tranquil  meditation 
which  grasps  the  broadest  aspect  of  things,  and  which 
takes  account  of,  and  correctly  estimates  the  moral  and 
intellectual  forces  that  are  acting  around — himself  wholly 
forgotten — such  a man,  how  would  he  shrink  from  the 
astounding  presumption  of  saying  to  his  readers — There  ! 
in  the  ten  or  twelve  volumes  of  my  works — there  look  for 
your  belief — whole  and  lacking  nothing.  Take  and  digest 
what  I have  written,  page  by  page,  line  by  line,  word  for 
word : — you  may  as  well  spare  yourselves  the  fruitless 
trouble  of  thinking  any  further,  or  of  going  deeper  into 
any  subject  than  I have  gone,  or  of  speculating  concern- 
ing any  thing  which  I have  not  considered.  Take  it  on 
my  word  that,  within  the  compass  of  my  mind  you — 
you — tens  of  thousands  of  people — the  teachers  and  the 
taught,  are  safe : go  beyond  that  limit,  and  you  will  get 
out  of  your  depth,  and  be  lost,” 

Wesley  did  not  use  any  such  words  as  these  when  ad- 
dressing his  preachers  and  people ; but  what  he  did  say 
embraced  the  substance  of  them.  His  mind  might  be  ad- 
duced as  a singular  instance — when  its  high  energy  is 
considered — of  the  absolute  absence  of  the  retro-rejlective 
faculty,  or  the  power  and  habit  of  stepping  back  from 
one’s  position,  and  of  measuring  its  bearings,  as  related  to 
other  objects.  What  is  it  that  the  painter  does  who,  at 
frequent  intervals,  and  as  often  as  he  has  exhausted  his 
skill  and  pencil  upon  a particular  object,  recedes  to  a 
spectator’s  distance,  and  there  considers  how  this  last 
finishing  tells  in  the  general  effect  ? Wesley  did  no  such 
thing.  He  wrought  his  picture  in  mosaics,  from  side  to 
side  of  his  frame,  and  nothing  could  be  retouched  or  con- 
sidered anew. 

Surprising  results  may  be  obtained,  in  any  work  of  art 
or  mechanism,  or  in  any  social  economy,  if  only  we  are 
willing  to  pay  the  cost;  that  is  to  say,  to  compromise 
every  thing  else — to  sacrifice  every  thing  else — to  forget 

I 


194  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

every  thing  else,  for  the  sake  of  that  one  result.  It  is  on 
this  principle  that  the  institutors  of  monastic  orders,  and 
the  founders  of  rigid  sects  have  so  often  amazed  the  world 
by  what  they  have  produced,  out  of  the  raw  material  of 
human  nature.  Draw  the  pen,  with  merciless  consisten- 
cy, through  every  thing  in  human  nature — its  tenderest 
and  most  generous  affections,  its  active  faculties,  its  de- 
sires, sympathies,  hopes,  fears — erase  all  but  some  one 
principle,  some  one  passion  or  tendency ; and  then  bring 
the  entire  force  of  the  system,  mental  and  bodily,  to  a 
focus — bearing  upon  that  one  clear  spot ; and  if  you  will 
do  this,  and  will  submit  to  all  this  damage  and  destruc- 
tion, there  is  nothing  that  may  not  be  realized,  just  on  this 
one  line : — the  man,  when  he  has  been  thus  treated,  and 
thus  condensed,  goes  about  as  a miracle  among  others. 
He  who  can  leap  high  from  a slack  rope,  and  come  down 
upon  his  palms,  and  turn  over,  and  regain  his  erect  posi- 
tion, has  learned  to  accomplish  this  feat  at  the  cost  of  his 
entire  faculties — bodily  and  mental  r — this  is  what  he  can 
do,  and  this  is  all ; — he  has  paid  down  his  whole  human 
nature  for  this  one  accomplishment.  The  parallel  to  this 
sort  of  compromise  may  be  found  within  the  pale  of 
every  ascetic  community,  and  something  approaching  to 
it  within  the  circle  of  some  noted  modern  sects  ; and  we 
must  not  say  that  Wesleyanism  offers  no  sample  of  this 
sort,  if  it  be  not  itself  altogether  an  example  of  it.  Jesuit- 
ism assuredly  is  so. 

After  what  has  been  said  in  the  course  of  the  preceding 
pages,  expressive  of  the  writer^s  belief  concerning  the 
early  Methodism,  and  his  reverential  idea  of  Wesley’s  per- 
sonal virtues,  and  of  the  incalculable  good  which  Wesley- 
anism has  effected,  some  degree  of  liberty  may  be  allowed 
him  in  speaking  of  that  system  of  close  sectarianism  which 
he  bequeathed  to  the  world.  It  must  be  granted  to  be  in 
costume^  and  quite  fitting — the  garb  to  the  inner  man — 
when  religious  communities  which  occupy,  as  one  may 
say,  a few  acres  only  upon  the  breadth  of  Christendom, 
narrow  their  doors,  shut  their  windows,  and  manage  their 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


195 


interior  economy  in  the  most  despotic  style.  Let  it  be 
so : but  the  same  indulgence  can  not  so  easily  be  granted 
to  a community,  like  the  Wesleyan,  the  gates  of  which 
stand  open  night  and  day,  which  challenges  all  passers-by 
to  enter,  and  which  has  rebuked  other  communions,  as  less 
catholic  than  itself.  Yet,  is  it  not  true,  at  the  present 
time,  and  has  it  not  been  true  from  Wesley’s  time  down 
to  this,  that  a seclusive  and  repellant  style  and  tone  have 
been  the  characteristics  of  the  Wesleyan  body,  as  com- 
pared with  surrounding  communities  ? If  it  be  so  then, 
what  we  have  before  us  is  at  once  the  widest  of  all  sects, 
as  to  the  area  it  covers,  and  its  statistics,  and  the  very 
narrowest  as  to  its  temper  ! 

It  is  quite  true  that  a pent-up  force  becomes  so  much 
the  more  a force  by  that  very  means  ; and  the  energy  of 
Wesleyanism  may,  in  part,  be  attributed — no  doubt — to 
its  tight  lacing.  If  only  you  can  bring  to  bear  upon  the 
minds  of  a body  of  men  enough  retaining  motive,  and  can 
induce  them  to  submit  themselves  to  minute  rules  of  per- 
sonal behavior,  to  sumptuary  restrictions,  and  to  verbal 
fixities  of  opinion  ; — if  you  can  win  them  to  something  re- 
sembling a jail  discipline,  if  they  may  be  brought  to  take 
an  Index  Expurgatorius  as  the  tether  of  their  intellectual 
sustenance  ; — if  all  this  can  be  effected,  scarcely  any  limits 
can  be  set  to  the  effective  power  which  such  a machinery 
may  display.  It  is  thus  that  the  Regulars,  in  their  day 
gone  by,  have  amazed  the  vulgar  world ; and  thus  that 
Jesuitism  has  seemed,  almost,  as  if  it  might  achieve  its  ob- 
ject— the  conquest  of  the  human  family.  It  is  thus,  on  a 
much  smaller  scale,  that  fervent  sects  have  filled  out  their 
hour ; and  thus  in  measure — must  we  not  say  it — that 
Wesleyanism  has  been  outstripping  all  competitors,  now 
these  last  hundred  years.  But  so  surely  as  any  species  of 
moral  force  has  been  generated  by  means  of  a moral  com- 
promise, or  at  the  cost  of  the  symmetry  and  beauty  of  the 
Christian  system — so  certainly  will  that  force  spend  itself, 
after  a time,  and  leave  the  materials  it  had  bound  together 
to  resolve  themselves  into  their  elements. 


196 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


While  we  have  in  view  any  such  instance  as  this,  it  is 
highly  necessary  to  attend  to  the  distinction  between  a re- 
ligious institution,  and  the  Christianity  which  it  implicates. 
The  adherents  and  champions  of  sects  are  perpetually  de- 
luding themselves  on  this  ground,  and  are  making  an  idle 
boast  while  they  attribute  to  the  excellence  of  their  frame- 
work— to  the  wisdom  and  efficiency  of  their  rules,  orders, 
discipline,  that  which,  in  truth,  is  common  to  themselves 
and  to  all  others,  retaining  and  employing  an  equal 
amount  of  the  deep  energies  of  the  Gospel.  What  ought 
indeed  to  excite  our  admiration,  in  contemplating  certain 
religious  mechanisms,  is  that  inextinguishable  force  and 
vitality  of  the  Christian  system,  which  renders  it  effective 
for  good,  notwithstanding  the  pressure  of  almost  any  bur- 
den with  which  misjudging  men  may  have  encumbered  it. 

Wesleyan  Methodism  has  proved  itself  hitherto  the 
most  efficiently  expansive  Christian  institute  which  modern 
times  have  seen ; it  must  be  presumed,  therefore,  to  possess 
excellence  of  structure  of  a very  peculiar  kind,  and  which 
should  command  the  attention  of  all  who  make  ecclesiasti- 
cal economics  their  study.  This  first  unquestionable  in- 
ference from  the  facts  before  us  being  granted,  then  it  will 
support  another — if  such  another  should  force  itself  upon 
us — namely,  that  a scheme  which  is  in  itself  so  effective, 
working  upon  and  by  the  aid  of  the  powers  of  Christianity, 
has  thus  far  held  off  from  itself  the  ill  consequences  of  some 
serious  imperfections,  which  would,  long  ago,  have  been 
fatal  to  almost  any  other  community. 

The  eager  champion  of  Wesleyanism  would  appeal  to 
the  broad  fact  of  its  unexampled  spread  and  prosperity,  in 
proof  of  the  perfection  of  the  system ; but  thocalm  observ- 
er, who  looks  upon  it  from  without,  will  find,  in  that  al- 
leged excellence,  a solution  of  the  otherwise  perplexing 
question — How  is  it  that  such  and  such  glaring  imperfec- 
tions have  not,  long  ago,  brought  the  Institution  to  which 
they  attach  to  its  end  ? 

With  a further  question,  which  would  involve  a calcula- 
tion of  the  destinies  of  the  Wesleyan  body,  we  have  no- 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


19V 


thing  to  do,  in  these  pages ; nor  shall  stay  to  inquire  what 
number  of  years  may  be  expected  to  elapse  before  the  ac- 
cumulating results  of  its  imperfections  shall  outweigh  its 
intrinsic  forces.  Nor,  again,  shall  we  prosecute  this  in- 
quiry— whether  the  Wesleyan  system  may  admit  of  such 
amendments,  as,  while  its  integrity  is  preserved,  may  ex- 
tend its  duration.  Avoiding  all  such  perilous,  and  perhaps 
invidious  topics,  we  are  to  look  into  this  vast  and  compli- 
cated economy  for  the  sole  purpose  of  gathering  up  from 
the  field  of  so  large  an  experiment  the  lessons  it  may 
furnish. 

Wesleyan  Methodism  may  conveniently  be  considered 
under  the  following  heads — namely,  as — 

I.  A Scheme  of  Evangelic  Aggression  ; 

II.  A System  of  Religious  Discipline  and  Instruction, 

as  toward  the  people ; 

III.  A Hierarchy,  or  system  of  spiritual  government ; 

IV.  An  Establishment,  or  Body  Corporate,  related  to 
Civil  Law  and  Equity. 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM— A SCHEME  OF  EVANGELIC 
AGGRESSION. 

The  advocates  of  the  Wesleyan  body  may  fairly  appeal 
to  the  candor  of  other  communions  in  some  such  manner 
as  this— Our  system,  they  may  ask,  is  it  not  in  itself  good 
as  compared  with  other  systems?  If  you  doubt  it,  see 
what  progress  it  has  made,  and  what  it  has  done.  Reckon 
the  rate  of  its  increase,  in  Christianized  and  in  heathen 
lands,  within  the  compass  of  a century,  or  little  more. 
If  you  say  it  is  Christianity  that  has  so  triumphed,  we 
gladly  grant  it;  but  yourselves,  as  we  also  gladly  grant, 
have,  during  the  very  same  course  of  time — and  much 
longer — professed  the  same  Gospel,  and  you  have  faith- 
fully administered  it ; but  yet  with  no  success  at  all  com- 


198 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


parable  to  ours ; and  while  we  acknowdedge  the  hand 
of  God  in  this  instance,  we  must  not  be  forbidden  to  look 
to  the  proximate  causes  of  this  difference  in  the  result, 
and  these  causes  we  find  in  the  system  ; that  is  to  say,  in 
those  things  which  distinguish  our  Wesleyanism  from 
any  previously  existing  ecclesiastical  organization. 

The  justness  of  this  appeal  ought  surely  to  be  granted ; 
and  if  so,  then  the  question  presents  itself, — What  is  it  in 
this  system  which  has  rendered  it,  in  so  eminent  a man- 
ner, effective  for  carrying  the  Gospel  out  upon  new 
ground  ? Much  of  this  unexampled  success  must  be  at- 
tributed to  that  extraordinary  impetus  which  'Wesleyan- 
ism, at  its  commencement,  received  from  Methodism, 
which  was  not  its  own,  exclusively ; but  as  this  advant- 
age, at  starting,  was,  in  the  nature  of  things,  temporary, 
we  are  still  bound  to  look  to  the  institution  itself  for  the 
principal  reason  of  the  greater  and  continued  success  it 
has  commanded. 

This  success,  estimated  in  the  most  moderate  manner, 
and  after  allowance  has  been  made,  in  the  w^ay  of  abate- 
ment, on  whatever  grounds  may  seem  requisite,  ought,  as 
the  writer  thinks,  to  be  held  good  in  argument— 
against  theory — establishing  a great  principle  of  ecclesias- 
tical science,  such  as  this : — That  it  is  always  the  part  and 
duty  of  Christian  meh,  put  in  trust  with  the  Gospel — or, 
let  us  so  express  it,  of  “any  congregation  of  faithful  men 
in  the  which  the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached,  and  the 
Sacraments  duly  administered,”  to  devise,  and  to  give 
effect  to  such  methods  of  procedure  as  to  them,  in  the  con- 
scientious exercise  of  their  reason,  shall  seem  best ; and 
this,  as  well  for  maintaining  the  church  which  they  actual- 
ly possess,  on  its  ground,  as  for  extending  continually  the 
Gospel,  near  and  far,  among  those  w^ho  have  it  not. 

This  principle,  obvious  as  it  is,  would  seem  to  need  little 
proving  ; and  in  fact  it  has  been  tacitly  assumed  and  acted 
upon,  even  by  those  who  have  rejected  it  in  words.  Yet 
it  stands  opposed,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  mystical  and 
spiritualizing  theory  which  aims,  if  it  were  possible,  to 


AN  AGGRESSIVE  SCHEME. 


199 


hold  the  Gospel  in  a sort  of  sublimated  condition,  as  an 
unearthly  abstraction.  There  is  always  in  existence  a 
tendency  of  this  sort ; and  it  is  seen  more  or  less  to  sway 
the  minds  even  of  those  who  well  know  that  to  no  such 
theory  can  they  give  indulgence,  unless  the  clearest  in- 
junctions of  Scripture  are  to  be  set  at  naught.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  same  clear  rule  of  common  sense  and 
Christian  duty  impels  us  to  reject,  as  an  impracticable 
superstition — a superstition  to  which  hitherto  not  the  most 
resolute  fanaticism  has  succeeded  in  giving  full  effect — the 
belief  that  no  means  or  devices  intended  for  securing  the 
maintenance  of  visible  Christianity,  or  for  effecting  its 
spread,  can  be  lawfully  employed,  other  than  those  which 
are  verbally  and  specially  defined  in  Holy  Scripture. 
Those  who  have  professed  this  belief  have  been  ready  to 
cite  Biblical  warrant  for  outline  and  finishing,  for  founda- 
tions and  superstructure — for  masons’  work,  and  for  deco- 
ration, of  their  Church-of-Texts.  Amazing  have  been  the 
refinements  of  expository  sophistry  resorted  to  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  completeness  and  consistency  to  the 
ideal  of  such  a Church  ; and  besides  the  fierceness  of  tem- 
per, and  the  bigotry  attendant  upon  this  endeavor,  it  has 
had  the  ill  effect  of  training  astute  minds  in  the  practice 
of  that  Rabbinical  chicanery  by  means  of  which  any  thing 
we  please  may  be  inferred  from  any  texts  given. 

This  superstition,  if  not  formally  renounced,  is  not  now 
practically  regarded  by  any  Christian  community  ; — it  is 
only  sighed  after  by  fond  theorists,  who  would  fain  think 
themselves  entitled  to  allege  the  authority  of  heaven  in 
behalf  of  all  they  do  and  say,  as  members  of  a Church. 

But  if  a practical  refutation  of  this  groundless  doctrine 
were  needed,  we  should  find  it  most  conclusively  in  the 
instance  of  the  Wesleyan  body.  Wesleyanism  is  a scheme 
— it  is  the  product  of  uninspired  intelligence ; and  there- 
fore it  has  its  defects ; but  notwithstanding  these  defects, 
it  has  been  (to  use  a customary  religious  phrase)  “ owned 
of  God,”  for  the  good  of  men,  to  an  extent  that  has  no 
parallel.  Let  the  facts,  as  they  bear  upon  the  obsolete 


200 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


superstition  in  question,  be  broadly  and  correctly  stated. 
They  stand  before  us  thus : 

Certain  Christian  bodies,  taking  their  rise  during  the 
Reformation  era,  or  in  the  following  age,  adopted,  as  was 
very  natural,  the  textual  principle,  and  could  be  content 
with  nothing  but  a Church,  in  all  things,  conformed  to  the 
supposed  primitive  mode! : the  founders  of  these  Churches 
indulged  themselves  to  the  full  in  this  their  ecclesiastical 
zeal ; but  what  has,  in  each  instance,  been  the  result — 
taking  the  lapse  of  a century  into  account?  The  history 
of  such  bodies  has  shown  a sure  progress  from  animation 
to  formality  and  supineness,  and  a constant  recession  from 
the  ground  at  first  occupied,  to  a ground  more  narrow. 
Such  bodies,  left  to  themselves,  and  when  they  have  ad- 
mitted no  genial  influences  of  reanimation  from  foreign 
sources,  have  invariably  lost,  from  year  to  year — their 
light — their  warmth — their  area,  and  their  numbers.  Is 
there,  then,  at  this  time,  any  room  left  for  indulging  the 
hope  that  the  world  will  be  widely  Christianized  by  any  of 
those  Text-made  Churches? 

But  let  us  turn  to  the  facts  which  present  themselves  on 
the  other  side,  and  we  find  them  in  the  history  of  Wes- 
leyan Methodism.  Wanting,  as  it  was  at  its  commence- 
ment, in  almost  every  adventitious  aid,  and  owing  nothing 
to  concomitant  political  excitements,  strong,  solely,  in  its 
evangelic  energy,  and  in  the  simple  purpose  of  its  promul- 
gators, it  possessed  itself  of  a surface  outmeasuring  far 
that  which,  in  any  properly  comparable  instance,  Christian 
teachers  have  brought  under  their  influence,  within  the 
same  compass  of  time.  And  then,  after  the  Methodistic 
founders  had  done  their  work,  and  when  Wesleyanism 
had  come  to  its  place  among  other  communions  in  En- 
gland and  America,  and  when  it  was  working  its  way  as 
abreast  of  them,  after  they  had  received  the  new  life 
which  Methodism  itself  had  diffused  through  all,  still  it 
continued  to  spread  in  an  increasing  ratio,  as  compared 
with  the  rate  of  its  initial  advances,  and  quite  beyond 
the  rate  of  its  competitors.  In  relation  to  our  present 


AN  AGGRESSIVE  SCHEME. 


201 


purpose,  the  Wesleyan  annual  increase  must  be  reckoned 
to  include  those  who,  on  several  occasions,  have  broken 
their  connection  with  Conference ; for  these  offsets  have 
still  held  to  the  elements  of  Wesleyan  organization,  and 
are  themselves  instances  confirmatory  of  our  immediate 
argument. 

This  organization  has,  we  say,  abundantly  proved  itself 
to  be  effective  in  an  extraordinary  degree — considered 
simply  as  a system  of  evangelic  aggression ; that  is  to 
say,  of  aggression  upon  the  irreligion  of  the  world  around 
it ; and  then,  if  any  are  inclined  to  urge  the  acknowledged 
imperfections  which  attach  to  this  system,  or  those  serious 
faults  of  structure  that  seem  now  to  threaten  its  perpetuity, 
as  so  many  countervailing  facts  which  should  lower  it  in 
our  esteem,  we  make  our  appeal  to  those  same  blemishes 
and  faults  in  a contrary  sense,  and  we  say — This  Wesley- 
anism — notwithstanding  its  confessedly  crude  composition, 
and  the  misapprehensions  and  the  practical  errors  with 
which  it  has  encumbered  itself,  has  yet  far  outstripped 
other  Church  systems,  framed  in  scrupulous  conformity  to 
the  theory  adopted  by  their  founders.  Wesley,  as  founder 
of  a Church,  stands  liable  to  some  heavy  inculpations  ; and 
therefore  it  is  that,  as  originator  of  an  evangelic  enterprise 
for  extending  the  Gospel,  he  may  claim  the  higher  praise : 
looked  at  in  this  light,  his  very  faults  come  in  to  swell  his 
trophies. 

Foremost  among  the  causes  to  which  may  be  attributed 
the  unexampled  success  of  the  Wesleyan  body,  must  be 
named  its  Unity  of  Intention,  or  adherence  to,  and 
steady  pursuit  of  a great  principle.  This  means  some- 
thing more  than  a faithful  profession  of  doctrine,  or  a con- 
tinuous orthodoxy ; for  other  bodies  have  had  this  same 
merit,  and  have  “held  fast  the  form  of  sound  words” 
through  centuries  of  prophesying  in  sackcloth.  But 
these  communities,  without  an  exceptive  instance,  beside 
their  giving  less  prominence  to  that  effective  truth — “ sal- 
vation through  faith,”  have  either  derived  their  organiza- 
tion by  tradition  from  remote  times,  and  have  allowed  their 


202  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

energies  to  be  shackled  by  venerated  observances ; or, 
what  is  worse,  have,  as  we  have  just  said,  yielded  them- 
selves to  the  will  and  whim  of  theoretic  Biblists,  and  have 
vegetated,  or  barely  breathed,  within  the  bandages  of  a 
Church  polity  according  to  texts. 

.No  man  was  more  devoutly  observant  of  the  authority 
of  Holy  Scripture  than  Wesley;  but  his  understanding 
was  as  practical  in  its  tendencies,  as  his  piety  was  sincere, 
and  he  perfectly  felt,  whether  or  not  he  defined  that  con- 
viction in  words,  that  an  Apostolic  Church — although 
right  to  a pin — which  did  not  subserve  its  main  purpose 
— the  spread  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  conversion  of  the  un- 
godly, must  be  regarded  as  an  absurdity  and  a hinderance 
to  the  truth.  “ What  is  the  chaff  to  the  wheat  ?”  what  are 
wholesome  and  scriptural  usages  and  orders  which  leave 
Christianity  to  die  away  within  an  inclosure?  Wesley, 
not  withdrawing  his  eye  for  a moment  from  the  great  and 
single  purpose  of  his  life,  not  letting  go  his  hold  of  his  one 
principle,  worked  upon  such  materials  as  came  to  his 
hand,  in  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  power.  Nothing  for 
mere  expediency  sake  would  he  have  admitted — nothing 
would  he  knowingly  have  done  on  the  assumption  that  the 
end  sanctifies  the  means.  But  so  long  as  no  apostolic  in- 
junction is  violated,  and  so  long  as  the  spirit  and  intention 
of  apostolic  precedents  are  regarded,  a Christian  institutor 
is  free  (as  he  he  thought)  to  use  the  natural  ability  and 
sagacity  which  God  has  given  him,  for  devising  a mech- 
anism which,  though  it  may  not  give  contentment  to  theo- 
rists, shall  subserve  its  high  purpose  of  sustaining  and 
spreading  the  Gospel.  Wesleyan  Methodism,  therefore, 
whatever  may  be  its  deficiencies,  if  thought  of  as  a Church 
system,  or  how  grave  soever  and  ominous  its  faults  as  a 
scheme  of  government,  has  yet  the  great  and  command- 
ing merit  of  embodying  the  evangelic  impulse  as  its  one 
law  and  reason : it  is  simple  in  principle,  and  with  the 
working  of  that  principle  no  subordinate  purposes  are 
allowed  to  interfere. 

However  true  it  may  be  that  Wesley,  as  a Founder, 


AN  AGGRESSIVE  SCHEME. 


203 


was  keenly  sensitive  as  to  the  integrity  of  the  system  he 
had  created,  it  may  be  imagined  that,  if  certain  material 
imperfections  in  that  system  had  been  placed  before  him, 
in  a convincing  manner,  he  would,  with  an  earnest  ingen- 
uousness, have  set  himself  to  work  anew,  and  either  have 
removed  those  faults,  or  have  demolished  his  house,  and 
built  it  up  from  the  foundation  on  a better  model.  Fur- 
ther even  than  this  we  might  go,  and  affirm  that,  at  the 
present  moment,  Wesley’s  true  successors  and  best  repre- 
sentatives would  be  the  men  who — after  the  experiment 
of  a century,  finding  Wesley’s  own  Wesleyanism  seriously 
at  fault,  would — with  that  grandeur  of  soul  and  simplicity 
of  purpose  which  distinguished  him,  take  in  hand  the  sys- 
tem, and  mould  or  remodel  it  in  conformity  with  the 
founder’s  one  purpose.  How  good  is  the  example  he  has 
left  with  his  followers  on  this  ground ; and  even  now  one 
may  think  one  hears  his  voice,  echoing  in  his  chapels,  and 
expounding  to  his  people,  in  \Xs  genuine  sense,  those  words, 
so  often  repeated  among  them,  “ Let  us  mind  the  same 
thing not  meaning  thereby  a slavish  adherence  to  things 
as  they  are,  whether  fitting  or  unfitting,  but  a wise  con- 
stancy in  holding  fast  a paramount  principle,  which  the 
lapse  of  time  can  not  affect,  but  which  can  be  pjeserved 
through  the  lapse  of  years  in  no  other  way  than  by  new 
adjustments,  introduced  from  time  to  time,  and  always  be- 
fore the  hour  when  they  can  no  longer  be  resisted. 

The  unexampled  success  that  has  attended  the  Wesley- 
an Institute,  in  winning  conquests  from  the  world — and 
this,  notwithstanding  its  defects,  and  the  meagre  style,  too 
often,  of  its  ministrations,  furnishes  an  evidence  fraught 
with  instruction,  which  none  but  the  infatuated  will  fail  to 
turn  to  advantage.  Actually  to  effect  those  changes,  or  to 
introduce  those  subsidiary  means  which  the  large  experi- 
ment before  us  might  seem  to  warrant,  may  not  be  prac- 
ticable, at  any  particular  moment ; nevertheless,  it  must 
be  desirable  to  keep  the  eye  upon  such  items  of  reform, 
so  that  fit  occasions  for  introducing  them  may  not  be  lost, 
when  they  shall  occur. 


204  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

And  now,  might  not  that  one  Institute  which  holds  the 
affection  and  approval  of  the  majority  of  the  English 
people,  draw  to  itself,  in  an  especial  manner,  those  infe- 
rential benefits  which  may  be  derivable  from  the  Wesleyan 
experiment?  How  improbable  soever,  and  undesirable, 
may  be  an  absorption  of  Methodism  by  the  Established 
Church,  there  are  points  enough  of  assimilation  between 
the  two  bodies  to  allow  of  the  carrying  over  whatever 
may  be  good  in  the  one,  to  augment  the  efficiency  of  the 
oth6r.  Let  leave  be  granted  for  affirming  that,  for  the 
advantage  of  the  Episcopal  Church  at  some  time  future, 
there  has  been  carrying  forward,  during  these  last  hundred 
years,  and  on  an  adjoining  field,  an  experiment  precisely  of 
that  kind  which  would  best  supply  hints  and  suggestions 
for  its  own  improvement.  Wesley,  thrust  out  of  the 
Church  in  his  day,  will  not,  now,  or  ever,  re-enter  it  with 
the  thousands  of  his  people  ; but  yet  he  may,  at  some  time 
not  very  remote,  win  the  honor  of  bringing  into  it  the 
rich  fruits  of  his  ecclesiastical  sagacity.  The  Established 
Church  needs — as  we  have  already  ventured  to  say — a 
place  assigned  within  it  for  that  which  we  have  named  as 
the  Second  Element  of  Methodism ; and  it  needs — glar- 
ingly so — a scheme  of  ministrations  having  an  aggressive 
purpose,  in  relation  to  the  masses  of  the  people,  and  on 
this  ground,  manifestly,  Wesleyan  Methodism  might  read 
it  a lesson. 

No  ecclesiastical  scheme,  however  wisely  put  together, 
will  of  itself  avail,  either  to  conserve  the  Gospel  in  its 
purity,  or  to  extend  its  range ; but  such  a scheme  may 
favor,  both  its  conservation  and  its  propagation ; and  it 
has  been  too  often  proved  to  be  in  the  power  of  an  ill-con- 
structed Church  polity,  as  well  to  deprave  doctrine,  as  to 
forbid  expansion. 

Whether  it  be  good  and  safe,  for  purposes  of  govern- 
ment, of  discipline,  and  of  financial  management,  to  leave 
uncontrolled  power  in  the  hands  of  the  ministers  of  re- 
ligion may  well  be  questioned ; and,  indeed,  it  is  conced- 
ing much  to  those  who  would  defend  such  a system,  to 


AN  AGGRESSIVE  SCHEME. 


205 


grant  any  space  at  all  for  a question  on  that  ground.  But 
t/iis  is  not  our  immediate  subject.  When  purposes  of 
evangelic  aggression  only  are  in  view,  much  may  be  said 
with  reason  in  behalf  of  a purely  clerical  conclave,  or  de- 
liberative assembly,  which  shall  be  exclusive  of  laymen. 

It  ought  not  to  be  thought  that  we  take  low  ground,  or 
that  we  are  recommending  that  which  must,  in  the  end,  sec- 
ularize religion,  when  we  pay  regard  to  those  secondary 
principles  of  action  which  spring  from  our  common  human 
nature.  A church  system  which  utterly  refuses  to  recog- 
nize inferior  motives  will  be  inefficient  and  impracticable, 
except  so  long  as  its  fervor  is  at  the  highest  pitch : a 
church  which  builds  wholly  upon  such  motives  is  nothing 
better,  at  any  time,  than  a worldly  polity.  We  do  not 
build  upon  any  such  motives ; but  we  never  lose  sight  of 
them. 

Those  arduous,  and  often  perilous  labors,  by  means  of 
which — and  on  no  easier  terms,  in  any  state  of  society,  and 
not  less  in  the  heart  of  Christianized  countries  than  in 
heathen  lands — the  Gospel  may  be  carried  out  and  planted 
upon  new  ground,  imply  and  demand  a very  high  tone  of 
religious  feeling  among  those  who  charge  themselves  with 
these  enterprises.  This  work  of  aggression — this  daunt- 
less entry  upon  the  royal  preserves  of  Satan,  and  this  con- 
tinuance in  the  soldier’s  course — this  endurance  of  con- 
tempt, buffeting,  defeat,  and  “ hardness,”  in  many  forms 
of  real  suffering,  and  of  tormenting  annoyance,  will  never 
be  carried  forward  by  men  who  have  not  braced  their 
minds  by  an  habitual  recurrence  to  the  ultimate  motives 
of  that  course  of  life  to  which  they  have  devoted  them- 
selves. Men — however  good,  fervent,  and  benevolent — 
who  listen  to  gentle  whispers,  who  are  wont,  as  the  phrase 
is,  “ to  think  better  of  it,”  and  who  take  advice  from  those 
that  stand  at  men’s  elbows  ready  to  endorse  the  pleadings 
of  an  infirm  conscience,  such  will  not  do  the  work  of 
which  now  we  are  speaking : — in  a word,  it  is  a work 
which  demands  a high  and  sustained  tone  pervading  a 
select  body  of  men^  and  which  would  almost  certainly  be 


206  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

lowered  or  abated  by  the  stated  presence,  and  the  official 
intervention,  of  laymen.  The  layman,  individually,  whose 
views  and  temper  were  such  as  to  place  him  on  a level 
with  the  loftiest  spirits  in  a conclave  of  ministers  would, 
by  the  very  fact  of  possessing  such  a mind,  cease  to  be  a 
layman.  But  when  a deliberative  assembly  is  so  consti 
tuted  as  to  include,  of  right,  a certain  proportion  of  lay 
members,  these,  in  whatever  way  elected,  must  be  taken 
as  they  come,  and  they  can  never,  as  a body,  possess  a 
very  exalted  character  ; at  the  best,  they  will  be  no  better 
than  the  best  of  the  people.  Some  of  the  more  active 
spirits  among  these  lay  deputies  will  be  forward  to  rec- 
ommend courses  of  ministerial  enterprise  which,  if  they 
themselves  were  ministers,  they  would  never  suggest; 
and  in  doing  so,  they  will  rouse  some  ministerial  counter- 
action, which  will  not  stop  till  it  has  gone  too  far : the 
‘‘  wise”  among  the  lay  brethren  will  be  likely  to  go  over 
to  the  same  counteractive  side ; and  thus  less  will  be  un- 
dertaken and  done  than  as  if  ministers  had  been  left  to  the 
promptings  of  their  spontaneous  zeal. 

Within  a purely  ministerial  conclave,  assembling  peri- 
odically, formally,  and  authoritatively,  the  ambition  (not 
necessarily  unholy)  which  seeks  the  welfare  and  increase, 
the  stability  and  the  augmentation  of  the  Institute,  whence 
the  individual  men  themselves  derive  their  social  and  pro- 
fessional existence — their  all — will  not  be  wanting.  A 
feeling  of  this  sort  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  that  are  in- 
cident to  human  nature  : we  gain  nothing  by  depriving  it 
of  all  space  and  opportunity;  we  gain  much  by  giving  it 
a legitimate  scope. 

An  assembly  such  as  we  now  suppose,  and  consisting, 
whether  of  one,  of  two,  or  of  three  hundred  members, 
will  not — unless  in  times  of  extreme  lifelessness — be  want- 
ing in  at  least  a few  eminent  instances  of  high  energy, 
practical  determination,  lofty  motive,  firm  principle ; and 
these  will  not  merely  be  allowed  the  influence  which  is 
their  right — the  inalienable  right  of  the  gifted — to  guide 
vhe  mass ; but  they  will  impart  to  it  their  tone,  they  wifl 


AN  AGGRESSIVE  SCHEME. 


207 


diffuse  throughout  it  their  feeling,  they  will  animate,  by 
their  words  and  by  their  looks,  the  less  enterprising;  they 
will  defeat  the  captious,  and  they  will  shame  the  inert. 
The  body  will  become  such  as  is  its  inhabitant  soul.  Far 
greater  things  will  thus  be  devised,  proposed,  enacted,  and 
effected,  than  any,  singly,  would  have  thought  of  as  prac* 
ticable. 

If  thus  we  have  secured,  within  the  conclave,  the  motive 
power  which  must  spring  from  the  bosoms  of  a few,  we 
should  next  see  to  it  that  this  body  of  men  be  such — or  be 
in  such  a position  as  that  they  may  best  receive,  and  best 
transmit,  this  same  impulse,  and  diffuse  it.  The  Wesleyan 
Conference,  as  framed  by  Wesley  himself,  was  well  con- 
stituted for  this  purpose.  No  purely  spontaneous  and 
precarious  meeting  together  of  individuals  will  ever  ex- 
hibit, or  has  ever  exhibited,  a sustained  energy  in  carrying 
out  its  intentions,  or  any  continuous  consistency  of  plan, 
from  year  to  year,  or  any  unity  of  purpose ; or  has  had 
enough  of  impetus  to  overcome  those  petty  oppositions 
and  caprices  that  swarm  about  voluntary  associations. 
The  members  of  such  a council  must  feel  that  their  elec- 
tion to  it  is  a distinction,  and  they  should  feel,  too,  that 
this  honor  brings  with  it  no  trivial  responsibilities,  and 
that  these,  be  they  what  they  may,  can  be  foregone  on  no 
other  condition  than  that  of  the  loss  of  status,  character, 
and  social  existence.  Never  will  great  things  be  effected 
by  a body  of  men  to  any  of  whom,  individually,  the  sort 
of  petitionary  question  might  be  put — ‘‘  Will  you  not  at- 
tend our  next  annual  meeting  — followed  by  the  surmis- 
ing prayer — ‘‘  Do,  if  you  can  !”  It  is  in  no  such  style  as 
this,  we  may  be  perfectly  certain,  that  war  can  be  suc- 
cessfully waged  with  Satan,  and  he  and  his  hosts  driven 
in  upon  their  defenses.  The  individuals  of  an  aggressive 
evangelic  body  must  all  be  subject  to  stern  law ; they 
must  be  accustomed  to  act  and  to  move  by  rule  and 
order;  and  they  must  go  forth  singly,  full  of  an  effective 
energy — more  than,  their  own — that  is  to  say,  the  energy 
of  the  collective  force  which  sends  them  o\^ 


208 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


Human  nature,  being  such  as  it  is,  and  if  we  take  it  in 
the  mass,  and  exclude  from  our  reckoning  some  rare  and 
eminent  instances — the  men  from  whom  arduous  services 
for  the  public  good  are  expected,  must  be  held  exempt 
from  the  pressure  of  private  cares — from  excessive  anxie- 
ties, and  from  all  shadow  of  dependence  upon  the  precari- 
ous favor  or  caprices  of  individuals,  or  of  small  constituen- 
cies. When  a man  is  struggling  for  himself,  and  for  his 
own,  he  may  be  left  to  meet  the  difficulties  of  his  position 
as  he  can : — not  so  (a  hero  now  and  then  excepted,  or  a 
martyr)  when  he  is  called  to  suffer  and  to  labor  for  inter- 
ests that  are  not  immediately  personal.  Wesley  well  un- 
derstood this ; and  while  calculating  his  fiscal  resources 
in  the  most  exact  manner,  and  adjusting  every  claim  on 
the  most  frugal  scale,  he  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  the 
men  who  were  to  be  his  “ helpers”  the  oppressive  burden 
of  their  personal  cares  : — he  would  have  their  help ; and 
therefore  he  saved  them  from  the  rankling  anguish  which 
is  daily  endured  by  those  who,  while  serving  the  Church, 
ai^e  torn  with  cares  for  a wife  and  children.  The  itiner- 
ant preacher,  whether  single  or  married — a father,  or  not, 
set  a firm  foot  upon  the  ground  he  trod  : and  while  frugal, 
and  observant  of  the  Methodistic  sumptuary  discipline,  he 
was  safe,  free,  cheerful ; and  he  had  at  command  his  con- 
stitutional stock  of  courage,  unabated  : it  was  not  required 
of  him  that  he  should  work,  travel,  preach,  govern,  while 
himself  subject,  every  day,  to  the  perennial  ague  of  hope- 
less poverty. 

In  considering  the  efficiency  of  the  Wesleyan  system, 
as  to  its  expansive  powers,  much  ought  to  be  attributed  to 
the  position  of  its  ministers,  as  being,  at  once,  exempted 
from  excessive  cares,  and  yet,  as  being  members  of  a 
body,  the  prosperity  and  extension  of  which  was  not  re- 
motely related  to  their  individual  welfare.  On  this  ground, 
and  when  we  consider  also  the  provision  made  for  the 
superannuated,  and  the  education  given  to  the  sons  of 
preachers,  it  may  be  affirmed  that  no  body  of  Christian 
ministers  has  stood  in  a position  so  favorable  as  the  Wes- 


AN  AGGRESSIVE  SCHEME. 


209 


leyan,  for  the  free  and  healthful  exercise  of  ministerial 
energies.  Exempt  from  the  law  of  clerical  celibacy,  and 
clear  of  the  degrading  influences  of  that  detestable  prac- 
tice, the  Wesleyan  minister  is,  on  the  whole,  less  exposed 
to  the  temptations  of  ecclesiastical  ambition,  and  is  less 
burdened  with  the  thoughts  and  cares  “of  this  life”  than 
his  brother  minister  of  any  other  communion. 

It  may  seem  obvious  to  mention  the  Wesleyan  itiner- 
ating system  as  a principal  cause  of  the  rapid  spread  and 
wide  extension  of  the  body ; and  unquestionably  it  has 
been  so ; and  yet  this  has  taken  place  under  conditions 
which  are  likely  to  be  lost  sight  of.  If  the  itinerating 
ministry  of  the  Wesleyan  body  be  placed  by  the  side  of 
the  stagnation,  the  inertness,  the  timidity,  and  the  gentle 
style,  that  so  often  have  become  characteristic  of  a minis- 
try fixed  to  a spot,  then  indeed  the  advantage  will  appear 
to  be  all  on  the  side  of  the  former.  A few  individual  in- 
stances may  no  doubt  be  found,  and  these  may  be  made 
to  serve  the  purposes  of  a needy  argument,  showing  what 
great  things  a devoted  man  may  do,  as  father  of  a district, 
in  evangelizing  his  neighborhood.  Such  instances,  rare 
always,  are  of  the  highest  utility  when  employed  as  the 
materials  of  an  instructive  and  stimulating  biography;  but 
they  are  of  no  pertinence  when  lugged  into  an  ecclesias- 
tical discussion. 

If  experience  is  to  be  our  guide,  there  are  two  modes 
available,  separately,  but  which  are  far  more  effective 
when  brought  into  combination,  in  which  the  Gospel  may 
be  extended  from  any  given  centres,  and  may  thence  be 
made  to  embrace  the  population,  until  these  widening 
circles  meet  each  other.  The  first,  and  most  obviously 
available  of  these  modes  is  a systematic  itinerancy : that 
is  to  say,  a continuous  assault  made  upon  the  unchristian- 
ized masses  of  the  people,  by  dauntless  yet  discreet 
preachers — preachers  who,  at  risk  of  life,  will  gather  the 
people — in  the  fields,  on  the  highways,  in  rooms,  or  where- 
soever else  they  may  be  encountered  ; and  will  there,  and 
thus,  waken  the  fleshly  ear  by  a bold  challenge  which  finds 


210  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

its  involuntary  response  in  the  depths  of  every  human 
bosom. 

The  other  of  these  two  modes — and  which  will  be  the 
most  effective  when  it  avails  itself  of  the  first,  is  that  of  a 
territorial  occupation  of  a country,  by  an  ecclesiastical  in- 
stitute— not  indeed  asked  for  by  the  people,  which  will 
never  be,  but  given  to  them,  as  it  should  be  given,  by  an 
enlightened  government : but  with  this  practice  and  prin- 
ciple our  immediate  subject  does  not  require  us  to  concern 
ourselves. 

But  if  an  evangelizing  itinerancy  is  to  be  spoken  of,  the 
conditions  upon  which  its  efficiency  depends  should  be 
duly  regarded.  It  seems  often  to  have  been  imagined  that 
itinerant  preaching  is  mainly  useful  as  affording  a prepar- 
atory exercise  for  tyro  preachers — a serviceable  training 
and  breaking-in,  well  fitted  to  the  purpose  of  exhausting  a 
little,  and  of  usefully  expending  the  animal  courage  and 
exuberant  zeal  of  young  and  raw  probationers  for  the 
ministerial  office.  “ Let  these  fiery  youths,”  it  is  said, 
“ go  forth  for  us,  and  break  the  ground  ; — they  may  per- 
haps do  some  harm  ; but  they  will  do  more  good  ; and  we 
will  follow  in  due  time.”  Among  the  errors  into  which 
senile  indolence  may  lead  men,  there  can  be  none,  surely, 
more  pernicious,  or  more  awfully  delusive,  than  this ; — 
none  that  is  more  conclusively  contradicted  by  the  most 
authoritative  of  all  precedents — that  of  the  apostolic  age  ; 
or  more  at  variance  with  the  most  pertinent  of  modern  in- 
stances— that  of  Methodism.  The  pattern  itinerant  of 
primitive  Christianity  was  none  other  than  the  loftiest 
spirit  of  his  age,  and  the  most  learned  and  accomplished 
man  of  his  nation,  and  one  who  lacked  nothing  that  could 
fit  him  for  this,  the  most  arduous  of  all  services — nothing 
but  a commanding  presence.  Or  did  Methodism  make 
England  and  America  its  own,  to  so  great  an  extent  as  it 
did,  by  the  sending  out  of  youths — preachers  who  had 
more  fire  than  beard  ? Did  the  founders  of  Methodism — 
did  those  true  heroes  and  martyrs  of  the  modern  Church, 
did  they  sit  in  committee  with  maps  and  plans  before 


AN  AGGRESSIVE  SCHEME. 


211 


them,  and  thence,  from  their  chairs  of  ease,  trumpet  the 
question — “ Who  will  go  for  us  ?”  It  was  not  so  : — these 
great  men — great  they  were  in  energy  and  courage — went 
themselves: — they  never  said  to  others,  ‘‘go  and  we  will 
follow  you  but  always,  “ we  go  : — follow  us,  and  help 
us.” 

If  the  Wesleyanism  of  this  present  time  be  not  the  Meth- 
odism of  the  last  century — a fact  concerning  which  we 
profess  to  advance  no  opinion,  as  we  have  no  sufficient  in- 
formation— but  if  it  be  not  such,  the  reason  of  the  change 
should  be  looked  for  on  this  very  ground,  mainly ; that  is 
to  say,  in  the  substitution  of  the  less  accomplished,  and  the 
less  experienced,  and  the  less  commanding  ministerial  per- 
sons, in  the  place  of  the  principals,  where  arduous  and 
perilous  evangelic  enterprises  are  set  on  foot. 

A growing  and  a healthy  Christian  community  has,  in 
this  respect,  no  analogy  with  the  animal  structure ; for  in 
the  body  the  living  force  must  concentrate  in  the  heart 
and  the  head,  and  thence  must  send  its  pulsations  to  the 
extremities  ; but  within  a Church,  if  it  is  to  thrive  and 
spread  itself  beyond  its  limits,  the  heart  and  the  mind — the 
life  and  soul — the  very  best  minds  must  move  forward  to 
the  exterior,  and  plant  the  advancing  stakes  of  its  taber- 
nacle on  new  ground.  No  apology  shall  be  pleaded  for 
when  the  bold  affirmation  is  advanced  that,  at  this  mo- 
ment, a Christian  community — holding  always  a perfect 
and  untainted  orthodoxy — that  is  to  say,  the  doctrine  of 
the  two  creeds — whatever  might  be  its  deficiencies,  or  its 
minor  faults,  if  it  sent  forth  its  very  best  men  as  an  itiner- 
ant ministry — its  seniors — its  men  of  experienced  wisdom, 
its  most  accomplished  and  best  educated  men,  and  those 
already  possessed  of  a generally  admitted  and  established 
reputation — such  a Church,  thus  itinerating,  and  thus  man- 
fully confronting  the  desperate  evils  that  afflict  our  eyes 
and  ears  on  every  side,  and  thus  giving  the  irreligious  and 
the  unbelieving  a proof  that  those  who  know  most  of 
Christianity  are  the  forwardest  to  publish  it — even  at  the 
risk  of  life,  health,  and  comfort — such  a Church  would 


212  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

gain  upon  all  competitors  by  great  strides : — in  a word, 
it  would  spread  itself  abroad  as  that  Methodism  spread 
which  Whitefield,  and  Wesley,  and  Coke  preached — not 
by  deputy,  but  personally. 

It  is  altogether  in  relation  to  purposes  of  another  kind 
that  the  Wesleyan  practice,  as  to  its  lay  and  local  preach- 
ers, finds  its  reason.  Christianity,  extended  and  planted 
by  means  of  an  efficient  itinerant  ministry,  may  then  (we 
need  not  doubt  it)  be  sustained  and  cherished  by  these 
subsidiary  and  inferior  ministrations.  And  so,  in  like 
manner,  by  the  modern  expedient  of  lay  helps— such  as 
city  missionaries.  Scripture  readers,  and  the  like — Chris- 
tian influences  may  be  made  insensibly,  and  most  service- 
ably, to  permeate  the  godless  masses  of  the  people:  it  is 
thus  that  the  Gospel  may  open  for  itself  a thousand  noise- 
less paths,  shedding  blessings  in  each ; but  it  is  not  thus 
that  it  will  triumph ; not  thus  that  it  will  be  honored  to 
overturn  the  throne  of  Satan.  Hhe  future  Methodism, 
concerning  which  the  writer  intends  yet  to  risk  an  opinion 
— that  next-coming  renovation  of  the  powers  of  the  Gos- 
pel, will  not — so  we  believe — take  effect  upon  the  world 
in  the  hands  of  any  but  those  who  shall  stand  the  foremost 
as  the  chiefs  and  the  fathers  of  the  Church,  at  that  happy 
time. 

When  Wesley anism,  as  distinguished  from  Methodism, 
is  spoken  of  as  a scheme  of  Evangelic  aggression,  its  own 
phase  of  doctrine  ought  to  be  taken  into  account ; for  this 
phase  has  a meaning,  when  so  regarded,  distinct  from  that 
which  we  have  already  spoken  of  as  belonging  to  the  sub- 
stance of  Methodism. 

A field  of  meditation  far-reaching,  and  difficult  to  trav- 
erse, would  be  opened  before  those  who  might  attempt  to 
follow  and  to  exhibit  the  Divine  providential  government 
of  the  Church  universal,  as  related  to  the  measure  of  light 
and  truth  that  is  granted  to,  and  possessed  by,  leading 
minds  in  seasons  of  renovation.  No  such  arduous  subject 
can  we  venture  to  touch  in  the  present  instance,  and  we 


AN  AGGRESSIVE  SCHEME. 


213 


thus  allude  to  it  only  to  introduce  what  must  here  be  said 
of  Wesleyan  doctrine.  Was  it  not  then  just  such  an 
aspect  of  Christian  truth  as  fitted  it  for  its  purpose — name- 
ly, that  of  gathering  and  of  retaining  minds  of  the  ruder 
class  ? Wesley  was  not  left  to  adopt,  in  subtilty  and  false 
wisdom,  the  pernicious  principle  of  reserve,  in  proclaiming 
the  Gospel  among  the  ignorant ; but  while,  in  all  honesty 
and  simplicity  of  heart,  he  wrought  out  for  himself,  from 
Scripture,  his  own  form  of  doctrine — that  doctrine  (as  we 
assume,  and  as  the  thoughtful  reader  of  the  Bible  will,  we 
think,  be  willing  to  grant)  was  itself  an  ill-adjusted  Chris- 
tianity, over  which  an  air  of  consistency  and  harmony  can 
be  thrown  only  so  long  as  the  eye  takes  in  a few  degrees 
of  the  broad  field  of  vision.  Yet  such  narrowed  aspects 
of  things  are  well  adapted  to  the  quick  apprehensions  of 
undisciplined  minds,  and  when  forcibly  presented  to  such 
minds  by  preachers  whose  own  views  are  not  wider  than 
their  style  of  discourse,  and  who  are  most  peremptory 
when  least  consistent,  and  the  most  copious  in  citations  of 
Scripture  when  Scripture  least  befriends  them — such  as- 
pects, so  presented,  become  eflfective  for  the  purposes  then 
most  important  to  be  secured. 

That  the  barb  of  the  Gospel  should  well  flesh  itself  in 
the  wild,  willful  conscience  of  the  rugged  populace— that 
alarms  which  are  indeed  too  w^ell  founded,  though  not 
precisely  in  the  preacher’s  sense,  should  retain  their  hold, 
both  of  the  imagination  and  the  reason  after  date — if  one 
might  so  speak — and  moreover,  that  that  release  from 
guilty  fears  which  the  Gospel  affords  should  be  thought 
of  as  instantly  available,  and  yet  as  amissible  ; — these  are 
the  conditions,  perhaps,  of  a scheme  of  doctrine  best  fitted 
to  the  purpose  of  bringing  to  the  obedience  of  faith  the 
lost  and  debauched  masses  of  a Christianized  country. 
Wesley’s  Christianity  was  altogether  of  this  sort;  and 
while  we  see  its  fitness  to  its  end,  we  should  devoutly  ac- 
knowledge the  presence  of  a higher  wisdom,  and  of  a 
sovereign  rule,  which  distributes  “ to  every  man  severally 
as  He  wills.” 


ai4  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

When  Wesley  went  on,  so  far  beyond  the  necessity  of 
the  case,  to  rivet  upon  his  people  forever,  and  by  aid  of 
law,  the  heterogeneous  mass  of  doctrine  comprised  in  the 
many  volumes  of  his  works,  we  see  him  inconsiderately 
taking  a course  in  which,  again,  an  overruling  Providence 
is  to  be  recognized,  as  intending  an  issue  which  Wesley, 
while  living,  would  have  deprecated  with  tears,  but  which 
we  might  imagine  him  now  to  look  forward  to  with  com- 
placency. The  adaptation  of  a certain  mould  of  doctrine 
to  the  peculiar  circumstances  and  uses  of  a temporary  dis- 
pensation can  be  nothing  else  than  its  fitness  in  relation  to 
what  it  finds  around  itself,  at  the  time,  and  with  which  it 
has  to  contend,  more  or  less  directly.  Now,  while  the 
adaptation  of  Wesleyan  doctrine  to  the  religious  and  to 
the  irreligious  masses  of  the  people  of  England,  a century 
ago,  might  easily  be  shown,  under  several  aspects,  that  is 
to  say,  as  related,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the  brutish  insensi- 
bility and  profligacy  of  the  many — on  the  other,  to  the 
lifeless  Epictetus-Christianity  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and 
again,  to  the  metaphysical  sophistications  then  in  vogue 
among  the  dissenters— while  all  this  might  be  shown  and 
sustained  by  copious  proofs,  yet  will  it  thence  follow  that 
the  very  same  form  of  doctrine,  legally  stereotyped  as  it 
is  in  Wesley’s  writings,  and  as  sustained  by  the  inflexible 
authority  of  the  Court  of  Chancery,  is  now,  and  at  this 
time — and  not  to  look  into  futurity — equally  well  adapted 
to  its  intended  purposes,  as  related  to  the  present  doctrinal 
position  of  surrounding  communities  ? This  will  not  fol- 
low ; but,  on  the  contrary,  the  misfitting  of  the  twelve 
volumes  to  the  times  current  can  hardly  fail  to  become 
more  and  more  obtrusively  apparent,  and  more  oppress- 
ively inconvenient,  at  every  interval  of  seven  or  ten  years. 

Since  Wesley’s  time  vast  stores  of  genuine  philological 
science  have  been  accumulated  on  the  field  of  biblical  ex- 
position— stores  ready  and  available  for  bringing  in  that 
better  harmony  of  sacred  truth  which  shall  gladden  the 
coming  age.  How,  then,  shall  it  fare  with  Wesleyan 
theology,  and  with  the  Poll  Deed  at  the  dawn  of  that 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


215 


time  ? Even  now  there  is  a noiseless  progress  taking 
place  which,  as  it  advances,  must  remove  the  solid  earth 
from  beneath  whatever  was  Wesley’s  own  in  his  system 
of  theology.  So  far  as  this  relative  change  has  actually 
taken  place,  and  is  going  on,  Wesleyanism,  instead  of  its 
being  that  which  the  modern  preacher  may  use,  as  did  his 
predecessor — as  an  effective  engine  of  assault  upon  the 
consciences  of  men,  it  is  a something  felt  to  be  obsolete, 
and  for  the  preservation  of  which  he  must  fight  a despe- 
rate battle. 

Let  leave  be  granted  for  the  suggestion  that  a recon- 
sidered Wesleyanism,  which  should  wholly  cease  to  make 
itself  the  antagonist  of  an  obsolete  form  of  Calvinism, 
might  yet  restore  to  the  Wesleyan  Institute  that  expansive 
evangelic  force  in  which  once  it  so  far  surpassed  every 
other  Christian  community. 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM— A SYSTEM  OF  RELIGIOUS  DISCI- 
PLINE AND  INSTRUCTION,  AS  TOW'ARD  THE  PEOPLE. 

A HEARING  has  been  secured  by  the  Wesleyan  preach- 
er ; and  the  people,  thus  far  gained,  are  not  merely  willing 
to  listen  to  him  again,  but  they  earnestly  desire  to  do  so. 
Gladly  he  yields  to  this  desire,  and  repeatedly  addresses 
them,  and  he  makes  good  his  hold  of  their  consciences 
and  affections,  of  which  he  must,  by  all  means,  take  ad- 
vantage, for  their  highest  good.  But  as  to  himself,  his 
commission  requires  him  to  hurry  forward  to  other  scenes 
of  labor,  and  he  must  provide  as  he  can  for  the  spiritual 
oversight  of  the  converts  he  has  made : he  does  so,  first, 
by  looking  out  from  among  his  little  company  the  one  who 
may  be  naturally  gifted  in  some  fair  degree,  and  perhaps 
also  may  be  a Christian  man  of  older  date,  and  who  has 
already  approved  himself  within  some  other  community, 
by  his  knowledge,  piety,  and  consistent  behavior : to  this 
Christian  man,  or  to  two  such  if  he  can  find  them,  the  itin- 


216 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


erant  preacher  commends  his  company  of  converts : in  a 
word,  he  does  that  which,  as  it  appears,  St.  Paul  did  un- 
der circumstances  not  essentially  dissimilar.  This  done, 
he  departs,  engaging  for  himself,  or  for  another  preacher, 
to  revisit  this  society  after  a while,  and  to  renew  his 
labors  among  them.  And  who  shall  say  that,  thus  far, 
the  apostolic  practice,  as  to  its  substance,  and  its  practical 
meaning,  has  not  been  followed?  To  Wesley’s  vigorous 
and  always  practically-set  mind,  this  course,  notwithstand- 
ing his  prejudices,  fully  approved  itself ; and  his  energy, 
and  his  simplicity  of  intention,  and  that  faculty  of  order 
which  in  him  was  so  remarkable,  quickly  brought  this 
practice,  which  had  sprung  up  under  his  hand  spontane- 
ously, into  the  form  of  a well-defined  and  established  insti- 
tute. At  this  point  Wesleyanism  is  no  longer  to  be  re- 
garded merely  as  a call  to  repentance,  or  a religious 
movement  and  revival;  but  it  is  a system  of  religious 
training : it  is  a social  mechanism,  sure  to  be  productive 
of  definite  and  beneficial  results,  so  long  as  it  shall  be 
maintained  in  vigorous  action. 

A religious  movement  and  revival,  if  indeed  it  be 
genuine,  issuing  in  unfeigned  repentance  and  faith,  must 
be  the  work  of  God,  though  effected  by  human  agency ; 
but  a religious  mechanism,  or  social  institute,  well  con- 
trived, and  working  according  to  its  own  Jaw  and  rule,  is 
the  work  of  man ; yet  drawing  toward  itself,  and  engag- 
ing in  its  behalf,  the  blessing  of  God.  Methodism,  as  we 
have  assumed,  was  God’s  work ; and  therefore  it  is  wor- 
thy of  the  most  devout  regard  ; but  Wesleyanism  was  the 
work  of  man,  and  instead  of  its  being  liable,  on  this  ac- 
count, to  a mistrusting,  a suspicious,  and  a cold  exceptive 
approval,  it  has  well  shown  itself  to  enjoy  abundantly  the 
favor  and  presence  of  Him  who  fails  not  to  prosper  the 
faithful  and  wisely-directed  labors  of  His  servants. 

Yet,  in  so  far  as  Wesleyanism  was  the  work  of  man,  it 
is  open  to  the  freest  scrutiny.  The  system,  as  to  the 
rudiments  of  its  composition,  is  conformable  to  the  spirit 
and  intention  of  the  apostolic  ministrations ; but  when  we 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


217 


come  to  follow  it  into  its  more  elaborate  adjustments,  our 
course  is  less  clear,  for  much  that  presents  itself  is  of  am- 
biguous tendency: — some  of  its  results  offend,  not  our 
tastes  merely,  but  our  feelings  of  propriety  and  consisten- 
cy ; and  very  much  bears  upon  its  face  the  characteristics 
of  a system  of  expedients  which,  though  they  might  be 
tolerable  or  warrantable  for  a time,  or  at  the  urgent 
demand  of  very  unusual  circumstances,  become  intolera- 
ble, if  extended  beyond  their  immediate  limits,  as  to  the 
occasion,  or  the  time. 

Nevertheless,  Wesleyan  discipline,  even  if  its  faults 
were  more  serious  than  they  are,  has  the  high  merit  of 
having  brought  in  upon  the  people  a scheme  of  religious 
DISCIPLINE,  IN  THE  PLACE  OF  NONE ! Frightfully  wi’ong 
must  a form  of  religious  discipline  be  which  one  should 
wish  to  see  quite  swept  away,  leaving  nothing  in  its  stead  ! 
Wesleyanism  came  in,  with  its  itinerant  ministry,  its  local 
preachers,  its  classes,  its  bands,  its  trusteeships,  and  its 
fiscal  organization — it  came  in,  not  to  supplant  any  exist- 
ing system  of  actual  discipline,  or  of  church  training,  but 
to  establish  a culture  of  some  sort,  upon  the  waste  howling 
wilderness  of  popular  irreligion.  Where  it  effected  con- 
versions, there  it  also  provided  for,  and  carried  forward, 
the  cure  of  souls.  The  cure  of  souls — a very  few  except- 
ive cases  allowed  for — had  been  wholly  neglected,  or  for- 
gotten, on  all  hands,  at  the  time  of  the  Methodistic  revival. 
The  Episcopal  Church,  in  its  several  offices,  assumes  the 
existence  and  the  efficiency  of  a universally  extended  re- 
ligious training ; and  it  is  on  the  ground  of  this  hypothesis 
that  these  offices  are  susceptible  of  a good  and  scriptural 
interpretation.  But  as  this  (supposed)  cure  of  souls — in- 
tended to  embrace  the  community,  from  the  first  weeks 
of  life,  to  its  close,  had  fallen  into  desuetude,  and  had 
quite  ceased  to  be  a fact,  Wesleyanism  deserves  high 
praise  (apart  from  its  merit  as  a mission  to  the  irreligious) 
on  this  ground,  and  because  it  supplied  so  sad  a lack  of 
service  on  the  part  of  the  Church. 

As  to  the  several  bodies  of  orthodox  dissenters — the  re- 
K 


218 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


ligious  contemporaries  of  Methodism,  not  to  speak  of  the 
lifelessness  which  had  then  fallen  upon  most  of  them,  the 
disciplinary  principles  recognized  in  these  bodies,  at  that 
time  (in  some  degree  amended  since)  were  founded  upon 
a far  too  narrow  conception  of  the  social  intention  of  the 
Gospel.  The  puritanic  idea  of  a Church,  although  true 
and  right,  if  we  look  just  to  a bright  centre  spot,  where  all 
Christian  influences  are  made  to  come  to  a focus,  sheds  no 
benign  beam  of  diffusive  grace  beyond  that  spot.  If  you 
chance  to  stand  a few  feet  away  from  that  glare,  you 
barely  see  a glimmer  of  light,  or  feel  a glow  of  warmth. 
Who,  at  a little  distance  outside  a puritanic  Church  of  the 
rigid  sort,  would  surmise  that  he  was  standing  so  near  to 
a ministration  of — “ The  glorious  Gospel  of  the  Blessed 
God?”  Wesleyanism  then,  with  its  more  practical  and 
its  more  widely-based  discipline,  was  a great  gain,  as  com- 
pared with  the  exclusiveness,  and  the  small  efficiency  of 
the  then  existing  nonconforming  communions.  If  we  have 
deductions  to  make  from  this  praise,  let  it  first  be  bestow- 
ed in  terms  so  decisive  and  ample  as  shall  leave  abundant 
margin,  even  after  our  severest  annotations  have  found 
room. 

It  may  easily  be  granted  to  Wesley’s  admirers  that  he 
made  the  best  provision  which  was  in  any  way  possible, 
at  that  time,  for  the  instruction  of  his  people — a people 
created,  as  they  were,  not  by  a gradual  operation,  but 
evoked  almost  at  a moment.  Then,  inasmuch  as  an  itin 
erating  ministry  was  indispensable  to  that  continuous  ag- 
gressive movement  which  was  the  first  intention  of  Meth- 
odism, so  was  it  the  only  condition  under  which  men  so 
imperfectly  educated,  and  so  slenderly  furnished  with  bib- 
lical knowledge  as  most  of  his  preachers  were,  could  have 
discharged  the  function  of  religious  teachers,  with  any 
sort  of  competency  ; — especially  considering  the  incessan/ 
public  services  in  which  they  were  engaged.  Then,  in  the 
early  times  of  Methodism,  the  meagreness  which  must 
have  attached  often  to  these  ministrations,  was  partly 
remedied,  or  their  deficiencies  supplied,  by  Wesley’s  own 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


219 


powerful  and  effective  preaching,  and  by  that  of  several 
of  his  ordained  colleagues ; and  at  length,  by  some  of  his 
ordinary  preachers,  who,  in  their  periodic  visitations  of  the 
circuits,  gave  the  congregations  a better  aliment,  and  car- 
ried them  forward,  each  time,  a stage  or  two,  in  knowl- 
edge and  feeling. 

And  beyond  this,  Wesley  would  naturally  look  forward 
to  a time  when,  in  the  course  of  things,  his  Societies, 
growing  always  in  Christian  proficiency,  would  become 
nurseries  for  the  ministry,  and  would  at  once  create  a de- 
mand for  a higher  order  of  ministrations,  and  nurture  those 
who  should  supply  it.  It  ought  not  to  be  questioned  that 
these  reasonable  anticipations  (which  Wesley,  as  we  sup- 
pose, entertained)  have  been,  in  a fair  degree,  realized, 
Besides,  although  Wesley  seems  to  have  held  the  several 
orthodox  communions  around  him  in  small  esteem,  and 
perhaps  barely  allowed  himself  to  calculate  upon  any 
material  benefits  to  accrue  to  his  preachers  from  the  in- 
direct influence  w^hich  they  might  thence  derive,  it  can 
not  be  imagined  that  the  Wesleyan  ministry  has  in  fact  so 
shut  out  from  itself  all  these  beneficial  influences,  as  not 
to  have  drawn  from  them  many  very  decisive  advantages. 
It  would  be  uncandid  not  to  suppose  that,  since  their 
founder’s  time,  these  preachers  have  caught  a tone,  and 
have  admitted  among  themselves  a light,  and  have  re- 
ceived an  excitement,  from  exterior  sources. 

And  further  than  this,  it  may  be  granted,  that  the  merely 
physical  influence  of  frequent  change  of  scene,  and  the 
animation  that  arises  from  contact  with  fresh  congrega- 
tional surfaces — if  so  we  may  speak,  and  the  opportunity 
afforded  to  actively-minded  preachers  to  amend  their 
style,  in  entering  upon  a new  circuit,  and,  not  the  least 
among  these  advantages  of  itinerancy,  that  knowledge  of 
mankind,  which  it  may  impart,  all  tend  to  promote  the 
preacher’s  improvement,  to  give  him  a just  confidence  in 
himself,  to  render  him  fearless  of  individual  countenances, 
and  to  fix  upon  his  ministrations  a character  of  force,  ani- 
mation, and  freshness.  Even  if  his  stores  be  far  less  ample 


220 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


than  those  of  others,  yet,  such  as  they  are,  they  will  be 
made  more  available  to  the  hearer ; and  especially  so  to 
the  uneducated. 

' All  this  allowed  and  granted,  to  the  full,  it  must  still  re- 
main as  a theoretic  probability  that  an  itinerating  ministry 
will  occupy  a position  several  degrees  below  the  level  of 
a located  ministry,  as  to  the  purposes  of  religious  instruc- 
tion. Must  it  be  thought  an  illiberal  and  unwarranted  in- 
ference that  this  theoretic  probability  has  made,  and  does 
make  itself  apparent  as  an  actual  fact  ? 

1 Any  one  who,  endowed  with  some  natural  faculty  and 
fluency  of  utterance,  has  made  the  experiment,  will  have 
found  it  far  from  difficult  to  acquire  the  power  of  continu- 
ous and  pertinent  speaking,  upon  familiar  topics — espe- 
cially upon  religious  topics — and  so  to  hold  out  for  a thirty 
or  forty  minutes,  or  more  ; and  if  this  habit  of  speaking  be 
well  husbanded,  and  kept  always  within  the  safe  inclosures 
of  conventional  phrases,  and  of  authenticated  modes  of 
thinking,  this  preacher  may  be  alw^ays  ready  to  ascend 
the  pulpit — in  season,  and  out  of  season.  His  sermon, 
or  his  set  of  discourses,  is,  in  fact,  the  glib  run  of  the 
mental  associations  upon  worn  tracks — this  way  or  that, 
as  the  mind  may  chance  to  take  its  start  from  a given 
text. 

This  sort  of  mindless  facility  of  speaking  proves  a sore 
temptation  to  many  a located  minister ; and  its  conse- 
quence is  to  leave  many  a congregation  sitting,  from  year 
to  year,  deep  in  a quagmire.  Better  than  this,  undoubt- 
edly, would  be  itinerancy : — far  better  is  a frequent  shift- 
ing of  monotonies,  than  a fixedness  of  the  same.  But  such 
an  admission  will  not  avail  to  establish  the  principle  that 
this  shifting  system  is  in  itself  good  ; or  that  it  ought  to  be 
regarded  in  any  other  light  than  as  a necessary  expedient, 
allowed  under  peculiar  circumstances,  or  (which  would  be 
far  better,  and  indeed  good)  as  a method,  or  system,  sup- 
plementary to  a located  ministry.  Thus  used,  and  put  in 
act — as  we  have  already  ventured  to  say — by  the  most 
accomplished  and  highly  reputed  ministers  of  a Church — 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


221 


by  its  chiefs  and  its  doctors,  every  thing  that  is  auspicious 
might  be  looked  for  as  its  consequence. 

This,  however,  is  not  the  Wesleyan  itinerancy  : — it  is  not 
as  thus  equipped  that  the  Founder  sent  forth  his  ship  upon 
its  transit  of  the  great  deep : — his  preachers  were,  all  of 
them,  to  be  itinerants ; and  as  movement  was  the  law  of 
his  own  existence — bodily  and  spiritual,  so — this  manifest- 
ly was  his  feeling — must  perpetual  movement  be  the  law 
and  the  practice  of  his  Institute : but  if  so,  then  must  we 
not  accept  the  double  conclusion  that  Wesleyanism  is  an 
economy  for  a time ; and  that  the  Christianity  it  teaches 
will  alw^ays  be  immature  and  superficial ; — precisely  de- 
fined— not  merely  in  a horizontal  direction,  that  is  to  say, 
as  to  its  bordering  upon  other  systems  ; but  not  less  sharp- 
ly shaped  beneath  and  above,  or  toward  those  heights  and 
depths  which  it  is  the  part  of  devout  meditation  to  explore  ? 

When,  as  we  have  now  done,  the  whole  amount  of  its 
probable  or  even  possible  advantages  are  freely  allowed 
as  the  recommendations  of  an  itinerating  ministry,  liberty 
may  fairly  be  taken  for  placing  these  advantages  in  con- 
trast with  those  of  a settled  or  located  ministry.  We 
must  not  be  told,  to  deter  us  from  attempting  such  a com- 
parison, that  these  happy  and  important  results  of  a fixed 
pastoral  residence  are  far  from  being  uniformly  realized : 
does  an  itinerant  ministry  always,  or  in  a larger  propor- 
tion of  instances,  reach  its  own  point  of  ideal  perfection  ? 

The  permanently  located  Christian  minister,  if  he  be  not 
broken  down  by  over  much  pastoral  labor,  and  if  consci- 
entious in  the  devotion  of  his  whole  energies  and  time  to 
his  high  calling,  will,  in  the  first  place,  find  leisure — more 
or  less — for  perpetually  extending,  and  for  retaining  also, 
his  acquisitions  as  a biblical  expositor,  and  for  availing 
himself  continually  of  that  influx  of  critical  apparatus 
which,  from  year  to  year,  is  laid  at  his  feet  by  the  un- 
wearied industry  of  accomplished  scholars — German  es- 
pecially. If  this  advantage  may  now,  by  some,  be  set  at 
a low  price,  the  time  is  coming  which  will  teach  the  rising 
ministry  a serious  lesson,  on  this  ground,  and  will  convince 


222 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM 


them  that  any  such  disparaging  opinion  of  biblical  accom 
plishments  involves  nothing  less  than  a fatal  observance 
of  the  present  tendencies  of  opinion. 

Grant  it  that  signal  industry  and  an  unquenchable  thirst 
of  knowledge  may  enable  an  errant  biblical  scholar  to 
prosecute  his  studies ; but — man  for  man,  taken  alike,  has 
Ijot  the  resident  scholar  ,with  his  own  treasures — his  Lexi- 
qons,  and  his  Commentaries,  and  his  idolized  folios,  in  their 
own  places,  on  their  own  shelves,  in  his  little  study — the 
blessed  place  of  his  converse  with  all  minds,  and  with 
heaven — has  not  this  settled  minister  and  student  an 
advantage  which  his  brother,  the  like-minded  itinerant 
{ireacher,  will  sigh  to  enjoy  ? 

Yet  this  is  only  the  beginning,  only  the  preparation — 
only  the  apparatus  of  a full  ministerial  acquaintedness  with 
those  inexhaustible  treasures  of  thought  which  invite  our 
advance  when  the  Book  of  God  opens  before  us  the  portals 
of  eternity  ! Even  if  it  might  be  alleged,  concerning  any 
passing  period  of  time,  that  habits  of  profound  meditation 
are  rarely  cherished,  and  that,  at  any  such  time,  the  pulpit 
does  not  give  evidence  leading  the  reflective  hearer  to 
suppose  that  a soul-deep  communion  with  that  which  is 
unseen  and  eternal  has  much  been  sought  after,  or  has 
actually  been  enjoyed  by  preachers,  even  should  it  be  so, 
it  will  remain  certain  that  a life  of  intense  meditation, 
grounding  itself  upon  an  exact  biblical  scholarship,  and 
observant  always  of  the  written  revelation — that  a life  of 
heart-thoughtfulness — a life  the  product  and  issues  of 
which  will  impart  force  and  freshness  to  public  services, 
and  will  supply  nourishment  to  hungry  souls — such  a life 
of  industrious  biblical  rumination  can  scarcely  be  possible 
except  under  the  conditions  of  a tranquil  ministerial  fixed- 
ness. If  ever  again  the  habit  of  counting  the  days  of  the 
week  until  Sunday  comes,  is  to  grow  up  in  congregations 
(not  a giddy  eagerness  for  the  intellectual  luxury  of  a fine 
sermon),  if  sermons  are  to  be  remembered  beyond  the  mo- 
ment when  the  foot  reaches  the  last  step  at  the  church 
doors — if  it  is  to  be  thus  with  us,  preachers  must  not  be 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


223 


those  who  shall  have  it  to  say,  at  the  close  of  a weary  life 
of  labor,  that,  in  the  service  of  the  Gospel,  they  have  trav- 
eled half  a million  of  miles  ! 

But  the  people,  if  indeed  they  are  to  know  what  that 
store  of  blessings  is  which  Christianity  holds  ready  to  be- 
stow upon  themselves  and  upon  their  families,  must  have 
near  them  always,  not  preachers  merely,  but  pastors  ; and 
if  the  man  of  incessant  journeyings  may  become  a pastor, 
such  as  the  people  need,  then  also  may  oaks,  in  full 
growth,  be  had  from  a nursery  ground,  and  set  down  be- 
fore your  window.  We  must  have  been  used  to  trifle 
with  our  own  souls,  and  we  must  have  become  regardless 
of  the  spiritual  welfare  of  our  families,  children,  and  serv- 
ants, if  we  have  not  often  desired  those  influences,  for  our- 
selves and  for  them,  which  a Christian  minister,  not  a ser- 
mon-maker but  a pastor,  may  shed  around  him.  But  shall 
he  do  this  who  has  been  “ two  years  on  our  station,”  and 
who  will  be  gone  the  next,  and  who,  while  he  stays,  is 
called  upon  to  dispatch  countless  public  services,  and  to 
rid  himself  well  of  a thousand  formalities  of  office  ? This 
will  not  be:  “Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thistles?”  The 
vine,  laden  with  ripened  clusters,  is  a plant  that  loves  its 
own  spot,  clings  to  its  wonted  holdings,  sends  its  fibres 
throughout  its  own  plot  of  soil,  and  may  not  be  torn  up, 
and  set  elsewhere : the  vine  draws  its  sap  from  the  ground 
it  knows,  and  yields  its  juices  to  those  who  keep  it. 

What  we  are  now  thinking  of,  as  the  fruit — the  fruit 
most  of  all  precious — of  the  pastoral  office,  when  sustained 
through  a course  of  years  by  a resident  minister,  is  not  the 
frequency  of  domiciliary  religious  visits  in  the  families  of 
his  congregation,  nor  the  pointedness,  the  fervor,  the  faith- 
fulness of  those  instructions  which  this  shepherd  of  his 
flock  may  address  to  assembled  families,  or  to  youths  in 
vestry  classes ; it  is  not  that  species  of  service  which  may 
be  acquitted  in  so  many  hours  of  each  week,  and  which 
may  be  duly  entered  in  the  columns  of  a register  ; it  is  not 
this,  but  it  is  that  which,  beyond  every  other  means  of  re- 
ligious influence,  and  beyond  all  other  means  put  together, 


224 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


is  felt  and  known  to  be  effective  in  diffusing  a Christian 
temper,  and  in  securing  Christian  conduct,  within  the  circle 
where  it  is  found.  It  is  the  exhibition — from  year  to  year, 
of  fervent,  consistent  piety,  in  its  aspects  of  wisdom,  meek- 
ness, self-command,  devotedness,  in  the  person  of  the  loved 
and  revered  father  of  his  congregation — the  man  who  is 
greeted  on  the  threshold  of  every  house  by  the  children, 
and  whose  hand  is  seized  as  a prize  by  whoever  can  first 
win  it — the  man  who  is  always  first  thought  of  in  the  hour 
of  domestic  dismay  or  anguish — the  man  whose  saddened 
countenance,  when  he  must  administer  rebuke,  inflicts  a 
pain  upon  the  guilty,  the  mere  thought  of  which  avails  for 
much  in  the  hour  of  temptation.  It  is  the  pastor,  an  affec- 
tion for  whom  has,  in  the  lapse  of  years,  become  the  char- 
acteristic feature  of  a neighborhood,  and  the  bond  of  love 
^ among  those  who,  otherwise,  would  not  have  had  one  feel- 
ing in  common. 

If  it  be  said,  pastors  such  as  this  are  not  found  on  every 
side  among  resident  ministers,  we  grant  it ; yet  some  such, 
in  their  various  degrees  of  excellence,  are  found,  and  may 
always  be  found  within  a Church  which  fixes  its  ministers 
in  their  spheres ; but  it  is  not  within  the  range  of  possibili- 
ty that  Christian  eminence  of  this  species  can  be  nurtured, 
or  can  find  its  field  of  exercise  under  the  stern  and  ungenial 
conditions  of  an  itinerant  ministry. 

May  we  not  safely  adopt  aphorisms  such  as  these? 
first : — Where  there  is  no  itinerancy,  there  will  be  no  ag- 
gression on  the  irreligious  masses — ^no  wide  spread  of 
the  Gospel : and  again,  this — Where  there  are  no  resident 
pastors,  there  will  be  no  Church  ; no  deep-seated  Christian 
love — little  diffused  reverence — little  domestic  piety,  and 
much  more  reliance  will  be  placed  upon  means  of  excite- 
ment, than  upon  means  of  influence  : regulations,  establish- 
ed orders,  conventional  usages  will  take  their  course ; but 
those  impulses  and  motives  which  supersede  law  v/ill 
scarcely  be  known. 

It  is  always  true,  and  it  is  consolatory  to  think  of  it  as 
true,  that  a system  which  is  not  essentially  vicious,  when 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


225 


hi  is  vigorously  worked,  supplies  its  own  deficiencies,  and 
brings  in  a remedy,  by  help  of  happy  anomalies,  for  its 
most  serious  faults.  Thus,  probably,  has  it  been  with 
Wesleyanism  ; so  that,  in  fact,  though  destitute  of  pastors, 
it  may  find  an  equivalent  among  its  other  provisions. 

The  practice  of  supplying  congregational  services  by  the 
ministration  of  gifted  laymen — local  preachers,  may  be  ex- 
empted from  the  reprehension  to  which,  abstractedly,  it 
stands  open — partly  by  the  plea  of  necessity — partly  by 
the  rigidness  of  the  regulations  to  which  it  is  made  sub- 
ject ; and  in  good  measure  also  by  a recollection  of  the 
benefits  which  indirectly  flow  from  it  as  a means  of  calling 
forth  those  who,  on  this  field  of  trial*,  may  approve  them- 
selves as  fijL  for  the  ministry. 

With  the  practice  of  the  ancient  Church  before  them, 
those  who  profess  to  be  governed  by  its  authority  ought 
to  take  care  in  what  terms  they  condemn  lay  teaching. 
Under  the  influence  of  circumstances  essentially  similar, 
the  same  course  has  been  adopted  within  the  Wesleyan 
body  as  was  followed  by  the  ancient  Church.  Whenever 
a Christian  community  becomes,  as  it  ought  to  be  always, 
aggressive  toward  the  irreligious  masses  around  it,  two 
consequences  necessarily  follow,  and  require  to  be  pro- 
vided for : — the  first  is  this,  that  the  preaching  of  a few 
able  ministers  has  called  into  existence  many  more  congre- 
gations than* they  can  themselves  personally  serve;  the 
second  is  of  a kind  to  aggravate  the  inconveniences  result- 
ing from  the  first ; and  it  is  this,  that  congregations  gather- 
ed from  the  uninstructed  masses,  and  constituted  chiefly  of 
those  whose  religious  habits  are  still  unformed,  must  be 
dependent  upon  others  always  for  the  aid  and  guidance 
they  need  in  spiritual  matters.  Moreover,  as  these  con- 
verts (very  few  of  them)  can  command  at  home,  even  in 
any  degree,  the  place  or  time  for  private  devotional  exer- 
cises, they  must  be  assembled,  for  worship  and  instruction, 
as  frequently  as  possible,  and  in  fact  much  oftener  than 
can  be  either  necessary  or  beneficial,  in  the  case  of  a re- 
ligiously trained  community. 


226  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

Hence  it  is  that  there  arises  perhaps  a threefold  demand 
for  ministerial  appearances  in  public  ; or  that,  for  one  con- 
gregational service  which  an  established  and  stationary 
Church  may  require — a convert-making  Church,  in  which, 
after  the  apostolic  model,  ‘‘  believers  are  added  to  the 
Church  daily,”  in  such  a Church  neither  its  onward  pro- 
gress, nor  its  permanence,  can,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be 
provided  for  and  secured  except  by  calling  forth  the  gifts, 
and  by  allowing  and  favoring  the  services  of  laymen, 
locally  connected  with  each  single  congregation.  A 
Church  which,  in  the  spirit  of  rigid  or  of  arrogant  adhesion 
to  certain  principles  and  rules,  persists  in  refusing  all  such 
aid,  and  will  do  what  it  does  only  by  the  means  of  educated 
and  ordained  ministers,  must  abide  by  the  inevitable  con- 
sequence— that  is  to  say,  it  must  fail  in  a main  article  of 
Christian  duty,  and  be  content  to  sleep  with  them  that 
sleep. 

To  condemn  therefore  the  Wesleyan  practice,  in  this 
behalf,  is  to  abandon  Christianity,  as  a glad  tidings  to  all 
people : it  may  still  rest  in  our  keeping,  as  a subject  of 
luxurious  meditation,  or  as  affording  the  objects  and  ex- 
citements of  mediaeval  devotional  services ; but  it  is  not 
apostolic  Christianity. 

Nevertheless  those  who  know  what  human  nature  is,  and 
how  much  caution  is  needed  when  spiritual  gifts  are  to  be 
brought  into  exercise  for  the  good  of  others — consistently 
also  with  the  religious  welfare  of  the  individual,  such  will 
not  need  to  be  told  that  not  merely  personal  wisdom  and 
discretion  are  required  on  the  part  of  those  who  govern  a 
society,  and  who  direct  such  services,  but  more  than  this 
— the  enforcement  of  rules  and  orders  carrying  with  them 
the  weight  of  a recognized  authority.  If  all  things  done 
in  the  Church  should  be  done  “ decently  and  in  order,”  so 
especially  should  the  gifts  of  the  “gifted”  be  exercised 
under,  and  within  the  limits  of  well-defined  and  absolute 
regulations.  The  truly  gifted  and  the  right-minded,  the 
zealous  and  the  modest,  will  rejoice  to  submit  themselves 
to  such  restraints  which  will  at  once  sustain  them  against 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


227 


their  own  misgivings  and  timidity,  and  defend  them  against 
the  jostlings  of  impudent  competitors. 

It  is  not  our  part  to  inquire  how  far,  at  this  time,  Wes- 
leyan Methodism,  which  stands  recommended  by  so  much 
of  system,  organization,  and  rule,  brings  this,  its  own 
principle,  to  bear  upon  its  practice,  in  relation  to  the  lay 
ministrations  which  it  allows.  It  is  however  matter  of 
record  (and  of  recollection  with  some)  that  in  the  Wesley- 
anism  of  the  time  immediately  following  Wesley’s  period, 
and  when  it  was  in  the  main  what  he  had  made  it,  his 
doctrine  concerning  instantaneous  assurance,  and  his  un- 
warranted practice  of  almost  demanding  or  of  looking  for 
semi-miraculous  interpositions,  in  answer  to  prayer,  took 
effect,  not  very  seldom,  upon  the  gifted  laity  in  a manner 
which  can  not  be  thought  of  without  a mingled  feeling  of 
terror  and  disgust.  It  was  well  if  indeed  the  regular 
preachers  always  observed  decorum,  and  always  remem- 
bered what  is  due^  of  reverence  and  humility,  to  the  Infinite 
Majesty ; — but  as  to  many  of  the  gifted  laity,  who  charged 
themselves  with  the  task  of  praying  the  converted  into  a 
better  condition,  it  will  be  acknowledged  by  the  candid 
and  intelligent  of  this  communion  that,  to  a very  great  ex- 
tent, if  not  customarily  (let  us  say  in  times  gone  by)  fright- 
ful violences  of  voice  and  gesticulation,  accompanied  by 
improprieties  of  language  which  made  the  ears  tingle, 
were  to  be  seen  and  heard  in  Wesleyan  chapels.  Where, 
within  the  compass  of  the  inspired  writings,  do  we  find  so 
much  as  one  syllable  which  could  be  appealed  to  in  de- 
fense of  these  extravagances  ? They  must  stand,  forever, 
without  apology. 

But  then  it  will  follow  that,  when  Wesleyan  Methodism, 
comes  under  review,  as  a scheme  of  religious  discipline, 
for  the  people,  its  original  misapprehensions  of  Christian 
doctrine,  every  one  of  which  Wesley  riveted  by  law  upon 
his  societies,  have  not  told  well  upon  that  practice  which, 
otherwise,  would  be  highly  approvable — namely,  its  lay 
ministrations.  Thus  does  a theological  error — which  may 
seem  to  be  only  an  innocent  abstraction,  work  its  way  out- 


228  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

ward  from  the  region  of  speculation  and  of  textual  exposi- 
tion, until  it  comes,  fraught  with  mischief,  upon  the  plat- 
form of  popular  excitement.  Justification  by  faith  all 
orthodox  Protestants  admit  and  teach.  But,  says  Wesley, 
No  man  is  justified  who  does  not  know  it — know  it  clear!}% 
certainly,  and  instantaneously.  He  who  is  not  sure  that 
he  is  saved,  is  still  in  a state  of  condemnation  ; nevertheless 
from  this  state  he  may,  at  a moment,  be  delivered  ; and, 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  for  him  this  deliverance,  the 
very  heavens  are  to  be  rent  by  the  boisterous  vociferations 
of  prayer ! 

Thus  it  is  that  the  inconveniences  inseparable  from  the 
allowance  and  employment  of  lay  ministrations,  when 
coming,  as  one  might  say,  to  an  intersection  upon  some  in- 
coherent doctrine,  have  issued  in  producing  the  most 
serious  evils.  How  far  the  good  sense  and  matured 
judgment  of  the  Wesleyan  ministry  may  have  applied 
a remedy,  in  this  direction,  those  who  stand  outside 
the  Society  can  not  well  know  ; yet  we  may  take  com- 
fort in  recollecting  how  much  the  insensible  influence  of 
one  religious  community  upon  another  avails  to  mitigate 
the  evils  incident  to  each.  Thus,  to  take  the  case  before 
us  as  an  instance,  it  can  not  be  doubted  that  a corrective 
influence,  real,  though  silent  and  unconfessed,  derived  from 
surrounding  communities,  less  crude  than  itself,  has,  almost 
from  the  first,  borne  upon  Wesley’s  Wesleyanism,  and  has 
operated  to  rectify  many  of  those  serious  defects  to  which 
his  unreflective  and  logical  energy  gave  occasion. 

It  may  be  so  in  the  instance  we  have  referred  to,  name- 
ly, the  intemperate  style  fallen  into  by  some  lay  preachers 
and  leaders : yet  is  there  another  principal  element  of  the 
Wesleyan  discipline  which,  as  set  on  foot  by  Wesley,  has 
still  more  urgently  called  for  correction,  and  has  needed 
every  healthful  counteraction  which  it  might  possibly  re- 
ceive from  the  better  feeling  of  other  Christian  communi- 
ties. 

Nothing,  in  Wesleyanism,  has  drawn  upon  itself  more 
reprehension — or,  in  fact,  has  been  more  open  to  it — than 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


229 


the  principles  assumed,  and  the  practices  established,  m its 
class  meetings  and  bands  ; but  while,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
rebukes  which  this  particular  institution  has  met  with  have 
often  been  unmeasured  and  excessive,  and  while  too  much 
use  has  been  made  of  some  reported  instances  of  impro- 
priety or  extravagance,  little,  if  any  regard  has  been  paid 
to  the  pleas  which  a disinterested  observer  may  advance 
in  its  defense.  These  pleas,  in  apology  for  the  weekly 
meetings  in  classes,  are  chiefly  two — the  first  being  this, 
which  however  no  thorough  Wesleyan  would  admit,  that 
the  Wesleyan  Institute,  itself,  is  not  a church  ; but  is  rather 
a system  of  useful  and  necessary  expedients,  brought  in,  at 
the  first,  to  supply  the  wants  occasioned  by  the  remissness 
and  the  culpable  negligence  of  the  existing  Christian  com- 
munities. The  second  ground  of  apology,  though  analo- 
gous, is  not  quite  identical,  and  it  is  of  this  sort,  namely, 
that  as  for  the  most  part  those  with  whom  it  has  had  to 
do,  and  whom  it  has  rescued  from  utter  irreligion,  have 
come  under  its  treatment  with  none  of  that  training  which 
an  effective  church  system  would  have  supplied,  it  could 
adopt,  toward  these  converts  from  heathenism,  none  other 
than  extreme  measures,  adapted  to  the  ruggedness  of  the 
material  upon  which  it  had  to  work.  When  therefore,  on 
this  ground,  Wesleyanism  is  blamed,  or  when  it  is  blamed 
by  members  of  the  older  communions,  such  condemnation 
as  may  be  called  for  can  not  ask  to  be  listened  to  unless  it 
is  prefaced  by  expressions  of  unfeigned  compunction  in  the 
recollection  of  the  ecclesiastical  sins  and  supineness  of 
ourselves,  and  of  our  fathers,  of  generations  back.  Is  it 
so  that  class  meetings  are  of  very  ambiguous  tendency  ? — 
Grant  it ; — but  let  it  be  remembered  that  an  utter  neglect 
of  the  masses  of  the  people  is  of  no  ambiguous  tendency  ; 
for  it  is  a pure  and  certain  evil — without  relief,  and  admit- 
ting of  no  plea  of  extenuation.  Far  better  must  it  be  to 
assemble  in  classes  those  whom  we,  and  others,  have  left 
banded  together  in  sin,  than  so  to  leave  them  any  longer, 
even  although  much  of  what  might  be  heard  in  the  class 
meeting  would  offend  our  fastidiousness,  or  be  liable  to 


230  THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 

some  just  reprehension.  Easy  is  it  for  us,  v/ith  our  nice 
notions,  and  our  unacquaintedness  with  the  manners  and 
habits  of  the  lower  classes,  to  think  much  of  the  improprie- 
ties of  religionists,  and  little  or  nothing  of  the  miseries  and 
degradation,  the  ferocity  and  the  utter  ruin  of  the  unre- 
claimed multitude  ! A humane  and  Christian-like  temper 
will  prompt  the  earnest  wish  that  Wesleyan  Methodism 
may  go  on  in  its  course  and  prosper,  notwithstanding  its 
heaviest  faults  of  system  or  practice,  and  even  if  they  could 
be  proved  to  be  heavier  than  they  are. 

Such  faults  have  perhaps  already,  in  great  measure,  met 
their  correction  ; or  whether  they  have  or  not,  a reference 
to  them,  made  in  the  spirit  of  love,  should  not  be  consider- 
ed as  offensive. 

The  evils  of  the  class-meeting  system  have  been  made  a 
frequent  theme  with  those  who  have  assailed  Wesleyan- 
ism : they  seem  to  be  summed  up  under  two  or  three 
articles ; but  the  actual  mischiefs  resulting  from  them  are 
probably  much  less  than  theoretically  they  would  seem 
likely  to  produce  ; and  be  they  what  they  may,  they  must 
be  accounted  smaller  evils  by  far  than  those  of  which 
Methodism  has  been  the  cure. 

If  the  class  of  persons  is  considered  who,  for  the  most 
part,  are  brought  together  in  these  weekly  conclaves,  what 
is  most  needed  for  them — besides  those  devotional  exer- 
cises which  tend  to  keep  fervent  piety  alive — is  a course 
of  sound  instruction,  catechetical  and  didactic,  embracing 
the  doctrines  and  duties  of  Christianity ; — that  is  to  say, 
instruction  brought  home  to  each  mind,  and  brought  down 
to  the  level  of  each  understanding,  in  a manner  which  can 
scarcely  be  effected  from  the  pulpit.  That  which  the 
class-meeting  urgently  needs  is,  a competent  Bible-class 
teacher.  But  how  slenderly  are  even  the  best  trained 
congregations  furnished  with  teachers  so  qualified  ! how 
few  are  those,  even  whose  religious  advantages  are  at  the 
highest  pitch,  who  can  intelligently  and  judiciously  expound^ 
Holy  Scripture  ! How  then  should  Wesleyan  congrega- 
tions, newly  gathered  and  undisciplined,  find  among  them- 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


231 


selves  any  such  teachers  ? It  will  not  be : it  is  impossible. 
They  may,  however,  and  ordinarily  they  will  be  able  to 
select  a sufficient  number  of  fervently-minded  and  well 
reputed  persons,  raised  a few  degrees  above  their  brethren 
or  sisters  in  experience,  and  possessing  a faculty  available 
for  giving  direction  to  an  hour’s  religious  conversation: 
and  how  much  better  it  is  that  this  hour  should  be  so  spent, 
than  spent  as  otherwise  it  would  be  ! 

Nevertheless,  a religious  meeting,  thus  constituted,  and 
thus  directed,  will  not  merely  fail  of  accomplishing  what 
ought  to  be  its  purposes  ; but  it  can  scarcely  fail  to  give 
that  v/rong — because  retorted — direction  to  the  religious 
affections  whence  spring  most  of  the  disorders  and  irregu- 
larities that  rob  the  Gospel  of  its  honors.  So  it  would  be 
under  such  a system,  taken  at  the  best;  but  Wesley’s 
logical  sophisms,  when  he  brought  scriptural  precepts  to 
bear,  in  a forced  sense,  upon  human  nature,  have  had  the 
effect  of  sadly  aggravating  these  evils.  What  could  he 
imagine  would  be  the  consequence  of  instructing  his  class- 
leaders  to  demand  of  each  member  an  unreserved  exposure 
of  a week’s  sins  and  temptations  ? What  is  it  that  could 
be  the  product  of  such  disgorgements  when  each  was 
solemnly  enjoined,  with  a remorseless  disregard  of  delica- 
cy, of  reserve,  of  diffidence,  to  pour  forth,  before  all,  the 
moral  ills  of  the  past  seven  days  ? May  there  not  be  some 
ground  for  the  alleged  comparative  harmlessness  of  auric- 
ular confession  ? The  gross-minded  and  the  shameless  will 
be  prompted  by  egotism  and  by  a bad  ambition  to  dis- 
charge the  week’s  accumulations  of  their  bosoms  very 
copiously  ; but  it  is  certain  that  the  sensitive,  whose  con- 
sciences are  the  most  alive  to  feelings  of  healthful  com- 
punction in  the  recollection  of  sin,  will  not,  until  the  system 
itself  has  spoiled  them,  be  able  to  bring  themselves  up  to 
any  such  pitch  of  ingenuousness ; those  who  should  be 
silent,  will  be  loquacious;  those  who  might  speak,  will 
violate  their  best  feelings  if  they  do. 

It  is  not  easy  to  imagine  how  it  can  be  otherwise,  so 
long  as  Wesley’s  instructions  are  literally  complied  with; 


232 


THE  FORM  OF  WESLEYAN  METHODISM. 


but  it  is  probable  that  that  good  sense  and  better  feeling 
which  so  often  comes  in  to  exclude  the  practical  absurdities 
attaching  to  a theory,  have  availed,  and  do  constantly  avail 
for  good  in  this  instance  of  the  class-meeting  confessional. 

But — so  far  as  these  unedifying  outpourings  of  ill-con- 
ditioned  bosoms  may  still  take  place  in  a class-meeting, 
one  can  not  but  be  dismayed  in  thinking  of  what  must  be 
the  moral  consequence  which,  in  a course  of  time,  will  be 
produced  upon  the  imagination  and  the  religious  senti- 
ments of  those  whose  fate  it  is  to  listen  to  the  same  ! Again 
we  must  profess  the  hopeful  belief  that  such  ill  conse- 
quences are  (one  knows  not  precisely  how)  reduced  al- 
ways, or  generally,  to  a minimum.  Yet  is  it  exceedingly 
difficult  to  imagine  that  a weekly  listening  to  the  revela- 
tions of  the  class-meeting  can  have  otherwise  than  a 
very  corrupting  influence  upon  young  and  uncontaminated 
minds. 

Let  it,  however,  be  granted  that  the  natural  discretion 
and  better  feeling  of  class-leaders  do  avail,  in  most  in- 
stances, for  excluding  what  would  be  of  ill  tendency 
toward  any  who  may  be  present ; but  even  then  a mis- 
direction is  being  given  to  religious  feelings,  which  is  so 
much  the  more  prejudicial,  because  all  the  parties  con- 
cerned— alike  the  teachers  and  the  taught,  believe  it  to  be 
wholly  good.  Already,  in  these  pages,  this  subject  has 
been  referred  to ; but  the  importance  attaching  to  it  de- 
mands a further  remark,  inasmuch  as  Wesleyanism  has  re- 
duced to  system  that  which  Methodism  had  cherished,  and 
which,  so  long  as  it  continued  to  be  quite  spontaneous  and 
incidental,  would  be  far  less  hurtful  than  when  it  came  to 
be  cut,  and  fitted,  and  timed,  according  to  statute.  The 
spiritual  life,  the  true  life  of  the  soul  toward  God,  will 
never  yield  itself  to  the  rigid  will  of  the  legislator:  for- 
mality and  hypocrisy  may  thus  be  dealt  with  ; but  not 
truth — not  the  depth  of  genuine  religious  feeling. 

It  is  that  extensive  convert-making  from  among  the 
utterly  irreligious,  and  which  was  the  glory  and  the  true 
praise  of  the  early  Methodism,  that  has  set  Wesleyanism 


TRAINING  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


233 


wrong,  on  this  ground.  How  different  an  aspect  would 
our  Christianity  wear,  if  developed  by  the  means  of  an 
effective  apostolic  Church — a Church  embracing  all  homes, 
and  all  souls  there,  and  carrying  out  the  benign  intention 
of  the  Gospel,  toward  all  born  within  its  circle  ! 

The  contracted  theological  views  of  some  parties,  and 
the  perpetuated  mediaeval  errors  so  fondly  clung  to  by 
others,  have,  in  their  antagonism,  shrouded  from  the  eyes 
of  all  very  much  of  that  bright  beam  and  that  life-giving 
glory,  the  distant  glimmerings  of  which  make  glad  the 
meditative  reader  of  the  inspired  books.  The  Gospel, 
wherever  it  is  dispensed,  claims  for  a rescue  all  human 
souls,  in  the  name  of ‘‘God  our  Saviour.”  We  demur 
about  this  claim,  and  we  put  it  under  conditions,  and  we 
make  it  liable  to  exceptions ; and  while  we  are  thus 
grudging  its  amplitude,  we  actually  fail  to  give  effect  to 
its  beneficent  import  in  those  instances  in  which  our  line 
of  duty  is  clearly  chalked  out  for  us. 

Christian  families,  trained  within  a Church  which  should 
well  understand  its  commission  in  the  world,  and  should 
be  alive  to  its  duties,  and  mistrustful,  never,  of  the  grace, 
the  power,  and  the  faithfulness  of  God,  such  families,  so 
trained,  would  send  forth  from  their  nurture-bosoms,  for 
catechetical  instruction,  their  junior  members — the  “mem 
bers  of  Christ — the  children  of  God — the  inheritors  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven” — those  to  whom  the  customary  hour’s 
talking  in  a “ class-meeting”  would  be  strangely  unsuitable. 
But  this  is  a subject  too  deep  and  wide  for  this  place. 
When  we  have  affirmed,  once  and  again,  in  these  pages, 
that  Wesley  did  not  construct  a Church — a main  part  of 
what  we  mean  finds  its  interpretation  at  this  point : — Meth- 
odism was  a proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  lasting  its  season, 
and  doing  its  work: — Wesleyan  Methodism  was  an  econ- 
omy well  adapted  to  the  purpose  of  sustaining  that  ag- 
gressive evangelic  movement  after  the  impulse  in  which  it 
originated  should  have  subsided.  But  when  it  comes  to 
be  considered  as  a permanent  system  of  religious  discipline, 
as  toward  the  people,  it  presents  itself  under  an  aspect  far 


234 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


too  special,  and,  one  might  say,  too  well  adapted  to  the 
rude  masses  with  which  chiefly  it  has  been  conversant,  to 
be  entitled  to  the  praise  implied,  if  we  were  to  call  it  a 
Church.  If  the  rejoinder  should  come  in  the  form  of  an 
animated  question — “ Where  then  is  your  Church  this  is 
a question  to  which  we  are  not  bound,  in  this  place,  to 
supply  an  answer. 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM,  CONSIDERED  AS  A HIERARCHY, 
OR  SCHEME  OF  SPIRITUAL  GOVERNMENT. 

Wesley’s  rightful  claim  to  our  esteem  as  a Christian 
ruler,  and  our  admiration  of  his  ability  as  the  founder  of  a 
great  community,  would  not  surely  be  enhanced  by  any 
attempt  to  allege,  in  his  behalf,  that,  while  contemplating 
one  species  of  organization,  and  while  having  in  his  view 
a certain  well-defined  purpose,  what  he  had  devised  for 
effecting  that  purpose  has,  in  fact,  proved,  itself  to  be  the 
very  best  possible — if  he  had  intended  to  bring  about  some- 
thing, not  only  wholly  different,  but  of  a contrary  tenden- 
cy ! As  if  a mechanical  contriver  had  constructed,  as  he 
thought,  a power-loom  which,  with  all  its  movements  and 
frame-work  unchanged,  was  found  to  perform,  without 
fault,  the  part  of  a printing  press — or  any  thing  else  ! 

The  evidence  is  copious  and  various  which  attests  the 
fact  that  Wesley,  in  instituting  his  Society — which  he 
thought  of  only  as  an  evangelizing  supplement  to  the 
Established  Church — entertained  no  thought,  intention,  or 
wish  to  construct  a Church ; — that  is  to  say,  to  frame  a 
spiritual  polity,  which  should  stand  by  itself — should  com- 
prise all  powers  requisite  for  a complete  ecclesiastical  or- 
ganization, and  which  (especially)  should  embrace  within 
its  provisions  that  necessary  balance  of  powers,  clerical 
and  lay,  apart  from  which  the  choice  must  always  lie 
between  hierarchical  despotism,  or  democratic  despotism  ; 
— that  is  to  say,  between  an  unabated  spiritual  supremacy 
or  impracticable  and  ungovernable  popular  caprice. 


A HIERARCHY. 


235 


It  has  become  usual  to  say  much  of  Wesley’s  rare 
gagacity ; and  this  praise  may  well  be  allowed  him,  if  we 
think  of  that  bright  intuition  which,  as  by  a flash,  discerns 
the  true  bearings  of  things  present,  and  which,  in  the  same 
instant,  adapts  itself  to  the  shifting  circumstances  of  the 
hour  or  day,  and  works  its  purposes  onward  from  day  to 
day,  with  high  success,  by  aid,  and  under  the  luminous 
guidance  of  this  ready  wisdom  and  skill.  In  this  sense 
the  Founder  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  or,  let  us  rather  say, 
its  chief  and  ruler,  was  pre-eminently  sagacious. 

But  there  is  another  usual  sense  of  the  same  word,  in 
which  it  conveys  a loftier  idea,  namely,  that  of  a far-reach- 
ing and,  one  might  say,  di  prophetic  forethought  of  the  dis- 
tant issues  of  movements  and  of  tendencies  now  in  course 
of  development,  and  which  takes  its  measures  in  due  time, 
provides  for  probable  results,  and  includes,  in  what  it  now 
does,  some  well-calculated  adaptations  to  remote  products. 
Sagacity,  in  this  more  enlarged  sense,  we  can  not  think 
was  Wesley’s  distinction.  If  indeed  we  thought  him  to  be 
sagacious  in  this  sense,  as  one  who  looked  far  and  wide  into 
the  future,  we  must,  of  sheer  necessity,  abate  very  much 
from  the  reverence  with  which  we  are  used  to  regard  him, 
as  a thoroughly  ingenuous  and  simple-minded  Christian 
man.  If  indeed,  which  we  think  obviously  was  not  the 
fact — Wesley  was  endowed  with  a far-reaching  sagacity, 
and  if  indeed,  from  the  very  first,  he  discerned — as  an  am- 
bitious spiritual  hierarch  would  have  discerned — what 
must  be  the  issue  of  the  movement  he  had  originated,  and 
if  he  saw,  in  the  distance,  what  Wesleyan  Methodism 
would  come  to  mean,  and  what  position  it  would  occupy, 
and  what  the  successors  of  his  lay  preachers  and  his 
“ Helpers”  would  be,  at  the  moment  of  the  centenary 
celebration  of  the  founding  of  the  Society,  if  indeed  it  was 
thus  with  him,  then  what  interpretation  will  there  remain 
for  us  to  put  upon  his  professed  and  long-adhered-to  re- 
luctance to  allow  to  his  preachers  and  helpers,  and  to  his 
societies,  those  functions  and  that  independent  liberty  of 
action  which  they — ministers  and  people,  were,  from  year 


236 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


to  year,  so  importunately  asking  to  be  granted  them? 
This  reluctance  might  indeed  be  very  politic,  and  it  might 
be  that  which  a far-seeing  sagacity  would  dictate  to  a 
chief  in  Wesley's  position  ; but  politic  in  this  sense,  then 
it  was  not  ingenuous  ; his  reluctance,  though  real  as  to  the 
inner  motive  which  prompted  it,  was  unreal,  nay,  it  was 
absolutely/aZse  as  to  its  declared  motive : it  was  a hollow 
pretext — it  was  a trick  and  a disguise. 

Of  no  trickery  or  paltry  conduct  was  John  Wesley 
capable  ; of  no  such  falseness,  or  of  any  falseness  was  he 
ever  guilty.  But  then,  if  not — these  are  the  consequences 
of  our  so  thinking,  namely — he  was  not  gifted  with  a long- 
sighted sagacity ; and  then  it  will  be  certain  that,  when 
he  spoke  of  his  institute  as  a “ Society,”  or  collection  of 
societies,  and  when  he  declared  that  he  did  not  intend  it  to 
be  a Church,  his  meaning  was — that,  as  it  was  not,  so  it 
could  never  become,  a Church  ; and  then  further,  if  we 
regard  him,  as  we  may,  as  a skillful  builder,  and  as  being 
(in  the  sense  we  have  reserved  for  him)  a sagacious  con- 
triver or  social  mechanist,  then  will  it  follow  that  the 
organization  which  he  left  to  his  followers  must  show 
fault,  and  must  work  ill,  and  must  strain  itself  in  its  joints, 
and  must  be  liable  to  frequent  shocks  and  jars,  when  it 
comes  to  be  put  in  play  for  purposes  nor  merely  unlike 
those  for  effecting  which  it  was  constructed,  but  alto- 
gether of  an  opposite  tendency. 

When  Wesley  gathered  his  helpers,  and  his  preach- 
ers, and  his  colleagues  around  him,  that  he  might  confer 
with  them,  and  obtain  the  benefit,  if  any,  of  their  advice, 
he  honestly  intended  precisely  what  he  spoke  of,  and 
therefore  he  did  not  intend  something  wholly  different — 
something  of  vastly  greater  dimensions,  and  of  incalcul- 
ably greater  difficulty — namely,  the  bringing  together  the 
elements  of  a permanent  spiritual  government.  Thus  it 
is  that  we  save  Wesley’s  Christian  reputation,  which  is 
dear  to  the  hearts  of  all  Christians ; but  then  we  save  it 
at  the  cost  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  if  it  assumes  to  speak 
and  act  in  the  character  of  a Church. 


A HIERARCHY. 


237 


Two  very  serious  ill  consequences  have  resulted  from 
the  anomalous  position  which  the  Wesleyan  ministerial 
body  has  (involuntarily)  come  to  occupy  in  the  course  of 
events ; — the  first  is  their  standing  perpetually  in  an  atti- 
tude of  antagonism,  or  self-defense  toward  their  people  ; — 
the  second,  following  as  the  consequence  of  this,  has  been 
that  their  writers  and  apologists  have,  by  the  urgent  ne- 
cessities of  this  their  accidental  position,  been  driven  to 
adopt,  and  resolutely  to  maintain,  a ground  of  clerical 
pretension  which  should  be  left  in  the  hands  of  ultramon- 
tane Romanists,  and  which  has  an  almost  grotesque  ap* 
pearance  when  it  is  assumed  by  Wesleyan  ministers. 

How  do  these  pretensions  (when  urged  on  this  side  the 
line  between  Protestantism  and  Romanism)  sound  as  com- 
pared with  the  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  apostolic  writ- 
ings ? 

Disclaiming,  as  we  do  utterly,  the  doctrine  that  a 
Church  may  be  educed  in  its  specific  orders  from  texts 
we  hold  ourselves  the  more  free  to  draw  broadly  from 
the  manifest  intention  of  the  apostolic  writings  those 
great  principles  which  can  never  be  lost  sight  of  by  the 
framers  of  ecclesiastical  constitutions,  without  immediate 
damage,  involving  also  the  eventual  breaking  up  of  what 
they  so  construct.  Putting  out  of  view  the  nugatory  ar- 
guments of  those  who  have  set  about  to  expound  Scrip- 
ture under  the  high  pressure  of  some  sectarian  necessity 
— putting  all  such  flimsy  perversities  out  of  the  way,  then 
manifestly  does  it  appear  to  have  been  the  intention  of  the 
inspired  men  who  gave  visible  existence  to  Christianity, 
and  under  whose  guidance  it  became  a social  organiza- 
tion, to  set  apart,  for  its  service,  a class  of  men — variously 
gifted,  and  exercising,  accordingly,  very  different  func- 
tions— who  should  devote  themselves  wholly  to  these  ser- 
vices ; who,  exceptive  and  peculiar  circumstances  not 
preventing,  should  alienate  themselves  from  all  secular 
callings — should  give  themselves,  without  distraction,  to 
the  work  of  the  ministry — meditative  and  active,  and,  in  a 
word,  should  live /or  the  Gospel  and  live  by  it 


238 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


Clear  is  the  correlative  duty  of  those — the  people — 
who  are  benefited  by  these  services,  to  see  to  it  that  the 
laborer,  ‘‘  who  is  worthy  of  his  hire,”  receives  it.  In  what 
mode  these  duties  are  to  be  rendered,  and  under  what 
conditions,  it  is  the  part  of  Christian  men  to  determine,  in 
the  exercise  of  their  best  discretion. 

Equally  clear  is  the  duty  of  the  people — the  instructed 
and  the  “ ministered  unto” — to  yield  obedience  in  spiritual 
matters  to  those  of  the  ministering  body  whose  function 
it  is  to  govern; — the  limits  of  such  obedience  being  easily 
ascertained,  resulting  as  they  do  from  the  nature  of  the 
relationship  itself,  from  its  obvious  intention,  and  from 
the  quality  of  those  motives  which  are  characteristic  of 
the  Gospel.  Can  we  think  that  a servile  submission  to 
priestly  arrogance  is  embraced  within  the  meaning  of  this 
precept — “Obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over  you  in  the 
Lord?” — how  should  it  be  so,  when  these  very  rulers  are 
forbidden  to  demean  themselves  in  a lordly  manner,  and 
when,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  enjoined  to  be  examples  to 
the  flock  of  meekness,  gentleness,  long-suffering  humility? 

Yet  these  are  not  the  only  Church  principles,  which 
obviously  present  themselves  to  the  ingenuous  reader  of 
the  New  Testament.  Such  a reader,  without  putting  his 
finger  upon  single  texts,  will  have  seen  and  felt,  and  will 
be  ready  to  acknowledge  (let  the  inference  be  what  it 
may)  that  the  doctrine  w^hich  makes  the  clergy  every 
thing  in  the  Church,  and  the  people  nothing— or  nothing 
but  its  raw  material — that  this  doctrine  is  not  of  Christ  ; 
and  then,  when  he  looks  through  the  vista  of  history,  and 
sees  in  what  manner  this  pride-born  doctrine  has  worked, 
and  what  have  been  its  fruits,  he  will  scarcely  hesitate  to 
say — it  is  of  Satan. 

The  precept  “ to  obey,”  where  is  it  found,  and  in  the 
midst  of  what  matter  is  it  embedded?  These  very  in- 
junctions, upon  which  the  despotic  hierarch  insists,  and 
which  he  expounds  with  a richness  and  an  unction  as  if 
the  very  substance  of  God’s  message  to  man  were  therein 
summarily  comprehended,  these  injunctions,  do  they  no* 


A HIERARCHY. 


239 


find  their  places  in  the  very  midst  of  theological  argu- 
ments, and  of  biblical  commentaries  of  that  very  kind  which 
the  hierarch  tells  the  people  they  have  nothing  to  do  with, 
and  which  they  can  never  understand  ? But  these  injunc- 
tions to  “obey,”  take  their  place  also  in  letters  disciplin- 
ary, addressed  to  “ all  the  faithful  brethren  in  Christ 
Jesus.”  These  faithful  brethren — even  the  mass  of  Chris- 
tian people — the  “ congregation  of  faithful  men,”  are 
instructed  in  what  manner,  and  according  to  what  princi- 
ples, they  should  carry  forward  those  measures  of  Church 
organization  which  are  essentially  of  a spiritual  kind,  an4 
which — we  might  have  thought,  belonged,  as  of  office,  to 
the  ministerial  class.  That  the  people — call  them  the 
laity — should  exercise  a control,  direct  and  absolute,  over 
that  which  they  themselves  have  created — namely,  the 
palpable  and  visible  property  of  the  community — is  a 
principle  too  obvious  and  unquestionable  to  be  formally 
asserted,  as  if  it  needed  Inspiration  to  advance  or  sustain 
it.  But  beyond  this  clear  rule  of  natural  right,  the  people 
are,  throughout  the  apostolic  epistles,  so  addressed,  and 
they  are  so  instructed,  and  they  are  so  cautioned,  as  to 
imply,  undoubtedly,  that  they  have  (or  should  have)  an 
organic  existence,  in  a spiritual  sense,  in  the  Church.  In- 
genuously reading  the  apostolical  epistles  w^e  recognize — 
not  with  reluctance  indeed,  but  with  a deep-felt  and 
devout  satisfaction — as  therein  seeing  the  “mind  of 
Christ,”  that  the  Christian  Laity  are  not  merely  to  be  in 
the  Church,  nor  merely  of  it,  but  that  they,  with  their 
ministers,  are  it. 

When  we  follow  the  course  of  events  to  which  Wesley, 
from  year  to  year,  and  with  so  much  address  and  tact 
conformed  himself,  it  is  quite  easy  to  see  how,  and  under 
what  influences,  he  was  led,  so  to  construct  his  Society, 
and  so  to  organize  its  legislature,  and  its  judicial,  and  its 
administrative  council  as  in  fact  nullifles,  nay,  puts  con- 
tempt upon,  the  very  first  principle  of  a true  Church 
organization.  Wesleyan  conquests  from  the  world  are 
the  materials  which,  from  year  to  year,  are  to  be  wrought 


240 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


upon  by  Conference.  But  does  a social  structure,  such  as 
this,  meet  our  idea  of  what  a Christian  Church  should  be? 

The  problem — how  to  give  its  due  place  to  the  popular 
influence  within  a Church,  so  as  to  promote,  not  to  im- 
pede, the  ministerial  functions,  has  been  variously  solved, 
or  has  been  attempted  to  be  solved,  by  the  several  com- 
munions that  have  come  into  existence  since  the  Reforma- 
tion. These  we  must  not,  in  this  place,  particularly 
specify;  but  shall  only  refer,  in  an  incidental  manner,  to 
those  two  or  three  instances  which,  as  they  stood  always 
in  Wesley’s  view,  must  have  offered  themselves  to  his 
acceptance,  as  available,  in  whole  or  in  part,  as  prece- 
dents, if  in  fact  he  had  intended  any  such  thing  as  to  con- 
struct an  ecclesiastical  polity — a design  which  manifestly 
did  not  engage  his  thoughts ; for  if  it  had,  who  can  doubt 
that  he  would  have  taken  the  English  Episcopacy  as  his 
model  ; not  excluding  its  essential  principle,  as  it  stands 
distinguished  from  Romanism — namely,  the  supremacy,  or 
constitutional  control,  exercised  by  the  State — as  repre- 
sentative of  the  laity? 

Within  those  churches  that  were  of  puritanic  origin — 
Independents,  or  Congregationalists  {English,  not  Ameri- 
can ; for  these  latter  have  in  fact  taken  up  the  useful 
elements  of  the  Presbyterian  scheme)  the  popular  influ- 
ence, according  to  the  theory  of  this  system,  is  supreme, 
and  uncontrolled ; nor  have  instances  ever  been  wanting 
in  which  this  theory  and  the  practice  thence  resulting 
have,  for  the  humiliation  of  the  ministry,  been  nearly  coin- 
cident. But  more  often,  the  democratic  principle,  happily, 
has  so  been  overlaid  by  a legitimate  ministerial  influence, 
as  that  in  the  working  of  the  congregational  machine  the 
theory  has  been  thrown  into  the  place  of  a faded  emblaz- 
onment of  honors  long  since  obsolete.  The  Christian 
Pastor — such  as  he  should  be — has  so  ruled  in  the  hearts 
of  his  people  as  to  find  it  an  easy  thing  to  govern  and 
guide  them — the  “Principles  of  Independency”  notwith- 
standing. It  has  been  the  less  skillful,  or  the  less  pastor- 
hearted,  minister — often  a not  less  estimable  man — or  less 


A HIERARCHY. 


241 


able  preacher,  who  has  suffered  as  the  victim  of  demo 
cratic  supremacy. 

But  besides  that  happy  counteraction  which  has  thus 
come  in  to  moderate  the  popular  power  in  congregational 
societies,  the  very  principle  of  these  bodies  has  supplied  a 
reactive  influence,  preventing  what  must  otherwise  have 
come  about.  Notwithstanding  the  centralizing  tendency 
of  some  provincial  associations,  or  of  more  comprehensive 
combinations — precarious,  inconstant,  and  powerless,  as 
they  are,  the  congregational  bodies  have  always  shown 
a dispersive,  rather  than  a cumulative  or  concentrative 
tendency.  With  these  bodies  it  has  always  seemed  a 
more  natural  or  easy  operation  to  split  than  to  join — to 
fly  asunder,  than  to  band  together — unless  indeed  at  mo- 
ments of  high  political  excitement,  for  the  carrying  some 
special  purpose,  or  for  defending  their  rights  as  citizens 
and  Christians. 

Thus  it  has  been  that  the  laity  of  these  communions — 
or  their  representatives,  the  body  of  deacons — has  not 
come  into  the  habit,  and  has  not  possessed  itself  of  the 
organization  requisite  for  any  effective  purposes  of  com- 
bined popular  action.  The  dissenting  laity  at  large  does 
not  congregate ; popular  supremacy  does  indeed  exert 
itself  in  many  small  circles,  not  in  the  happiest  manner ; 
but  nowhere  has  it  become  a formidable  power,  present- 
ing a broad  frontage  w^hich  might  breed  alarm. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  conditions  of  the  de- 
mocratic element  in  the  nonconforming  communions,  it 
does  not  appear  that  Wesley  knew  much  (probably  little 
or  nothing)  of  their  constitution,  or  of  their  actual  state ; 
nor  indeed  would  his  prejudices,  as  a Churchman,  have 
favored  his  giving  due  attention  to  what  might  so  well 
have  engaged  it,  in  the  structure  and  working  of  the  In- 
dependent churches.  From  Moravianism  he  borrowed 
what  might  seem  available,  on  points  of  discipline;  but 
this  body  was  too  special  in  its  intention  to  allow  of  a 
transfer  of  its  structural  principles  to  his  own  more  wide- 
ly-based society. 


L 


242  WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 

Yet  of  Presbyterianism,  Continental  and  Scottish,  he 
was  not  ignorant ; nor  could  he  have  forgotten  it.  It  was 
not  possible  that,  while  his  own  institute  was  growing 
under  his  eye  and  hand,  he  could  have  failed  to  recollect 
that,  in  the  Presbyterian  Churches,  a well-considered  and 
a scripturally  sustained  combination  of  the  clerical  and 
lay  elements  was  open  to  his  imitation : here,  full  in  his 
view,  was  a carefully  equipoised  ecclesiastical  structure, 
which,  although  wanting,  as  it  would  be  in  his  opinion,  as 
to  the  episcopal  function,  yet  claims  a respectful  regard 
on  the  ground  of  the  jealous  care  it  takes,  as  well  of  min- 
isterial honors,  as  of  popular  rights. 

Why  then  did  not  Wesley  take  pattern — in  some  way 
— from  so  applicable  an  example  as  this? — why  did  he 
borrow  nothing  from  the  Presbyterian  model  ? This 
question  admits  of  but  one  answer,  which  is  this — that,  in 
framing  his  Society,  and  in  investing  Conference  with  its 
absolution,  and  in  putting  into  the  sovereign  hands  of  his 
superintendents  the  irresponsible  power  to  bind  and  to 
loose  on  earth,  he  no  more  intended  to  construct  a Church 
than  he  intended  to  frame  a new  British  Constitution.  All 
those  mischiefs  and  perils  which,  since  his  time,  have 
ensued  within  the  body,  seem  comprehended  in  the  one 
practical  error  of  those  who  have  attempted  to  work  a 
complicated  machinery  for  a purpose  almost  the  very 
contrary  of  that  which  the  contriver  himself  had  in  view. 

It  may  be  alleged  that,  as  to  Presbyterianism,  Wesley 
was  not  intimately  acquainted  with  it ; or,  if  acquainted 
with  it,  that  his  Episcopalian  prejudices  w^ould  be  likely  to 
prevent  his  availing  himself  of  any  aid  from  that  quarter. 
What  have  we  then  to  say,  when  we  recollect  that,  with 
the  constitution  and  the  working  of  the  Established  Church 
he  was  thoroughly  conversant — that  he  cordially  approv- 
ed this  constitution,  and  that  the  very  characteristic  of 
this  Church,  and  the  point  of  its  contrast  with  Romanism 
(or,  let  us  here  say.  Popery)  is  this  very  principle  of  lay 
influence,  lay  control,  lay  appeal,  lay  supremacy,  in  spirit- 
ual matters?  If  Congregationalism  admits  the  influence, 


A HIERARCHY. 


243 


and  works  by  the  means  of  the  Church  at  large,  the  mem- 
bers and  their  officers — if  Presbyterianism  also  thus  rests 
upon  the  broad  basis  of  a mixed  government,  clerical  and 
lay,  the  Established  Episcopal  Church  does  so  much  more. 
The  constitutional  rendering  of  the  phrase  “ Church  and 
King”  is  in  fact  King  and  Church;  and  this  interpreta- 
tion is  carried  out,  from  the  throne,  to  those  extreme  in- 
stances in  which  a layman  demands,  and  makes  good, 
against  the  purely  spiritual  will  of  the  parish  priest,  his 
rights  as  a member  of  the  national  Church. 

The  system  of  patronage  (whether  good  or  evil  in  it- 
self) and  the  position  of  the  episcopal  order  in  the  State, 
as  barons  of  the  empire,  and  their  place  among  the  lay 
lords,  in  concurrence  with  whom,  and  not  without  their 
consent,  they  can  carry  any  ecclesiastical  measure — and 
the  absolute  authority  of  Parliament,  Commons  as  well  as 
Lords,  in  Church  affairs ; and  that  power  which  is  quite 
separable  from  the  constitutional  function  of  the  Crown  as 
one  with  Parliament — namely,  the  royal  supremacy — the 
headship  of  the  Church ; all  these  provisions  for  giving 
operation  to  lay  influence,  and  for  securing  a peremptory 
lay  control  in  matters  both  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical,  are, 
whatever  opinion  may  be  entertained  as  to  some  of  them, 
in  fact  so  many  notable  instances  of  the  prominence  in- 
tended to  be  given  to  the  popular  element  in  the  structure 
and  working  of  the  Established  Church.  Besides,  and  be- 
yond all  this,  it  is  upon  the  Established  Church — it  is  upon 
its  bishops  and  clergy,  and  in  a proportion  immeasurably 
greater  than  in  any  other  instance— that  the  mighty  in- 
fluences of  public  opinion  are  perpetually  bearing.  The 
surrounding  religious  communities  attract  public  attention 
very  rarely,  or  only  in  some  feeble  and  incidental  man- 
ner. A religious  dissenting  body  must  have  stepped  quite 
out  of  the  course  of  its  ordinary  routine,  and  must  have 
made  itself  strangely  remarkable,  before  it  can  draw  to- 
ward itself  the  eye,  or  waken  the  ear,  of  the  great  and 
busy  world.  Not  so  with  the  clergy  of  the  Established 
Church,  who,  one  and  all,  higher  and  lower,  the  primate 


244 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


and  the  country  parson  and  curate,  stand  daily  and  weekly 
as  one  might  say,  liable  to  a citation  to  answer  for  their  be- 
havior before  the  periodic  press.  The  daily,  the  weekly,  the 
monthly,  the  quarterly  press  makes,  for  its  court,  a term 
of  the  year  round,  and  constitutes  itself  at  once  a bench  of 
magistrates,  a court  of  appeal,  a star  chamber,  and  a “ holy 
office,^’  to  which  all  clerical  persons  are  instantly  amenable. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Wesley  disapproved  of  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Established  Church  in  this  behalf,  or  that 
he  formally  asserted,  in  contravention  of  it,  the  ultramon- 
tane doctrine  of  absolute  spiritual  despotism.  Is  it  not, 
therefore,  manifest  that,  when  he  constituted  his  Society 
on  a principle  which  is  at  variance  with  that  of  every 
Protestant  Church,  and  which  is  in  harmony  with  nothing 
but  the  loftiest  and  most  arrogant  pretensions  of  the  Rom- 
ish hierarchy,  that,  when  he  did  this,  he  did  it  because  he 
was  constructing  a supplementary  Society,  not  rearing  a 
Church?  Nor,  indeed,  could  he  have  undertaken  any 
such  task  with  the  materials  that  came  then,  or  at  any 
after  time,  under  his  hand.  What  was  the  Wesleyan  laity, 
such  as  he  saw  it  around  him  ? A laity,  competent  to  per- 
form its  functions  to  good  purpose  within  a church  organ- 
ization, must  have  been  religiously  trained,  and  it  must 
have  grown  up  in  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  those 
social  religious  virtues  which  tend  to  bring  about  a due 
adjustment  of  forces  between  zeal  and  wisdom,  or  pru- 
dence. An  efficient  laity  grows  up  by  the  side,  and  under 
the  teaching,  of  an  efficient  pastorate.  Preachers  who  are 
not  pastors  will  never  see  around  them  elders,  deacons, 
and  people,  able  and  willing  to  work  with  them  in  carry- 
ing forward  those  various  means  of  good  to  which  Chris- 
tianity may,  and  will,  give  effect. 

Wesley,  we  say,  had  not  at  his  command,  while  he  was 
laboring  to  bring  his  Society  into  order,  either  the  minis- 
terial or  the  lay  materials  by  means  of  which  he  could 
have  organized  a Church,  even  if  he  had  proposed  and 
wished  so  to  do.  But  it  is  manifest  that  he  did  neither 
wish  nor  intend  any  thing  of  the  sort.  Nevertheless,  if 


A HIERARCHY. 


245 


he  had  possessed  that  sort  of  sagacity  which,  in  love  to  his 
memory,  we  do  not  attribute  to  him,  he  would  have  seen, 
as  the  inevitable  consequence  of  the  vast  machinery  he 
had  set  in  movement,  that  Wesleyan  Methodism  would,  at 
no  very  remote  period,  come  into  a position  for  which  he 
had  made  no  proper  provision ; that  is  to  say,  it  would 
become  a Church,  wanting  the  necessary  elements  of 
church  organization. 

To  what  extent  this  serious,  if  not  fatal,  deficiency  in 
the  Wesleyan  community  may  since  have  been  supplied, 
or  how  far  the  evils  resulting  from  it  have  been  remedied 
by  the  several  concessions  granted  to  the  people  by  the 
Conference,  of  late  years,  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  inquire ; 
nor  do  we  ask,  whether  some  thorough  and  effective  mod- 
ification of  the  system — such  as  might  give  reasonable 
contentment  to  the  popular  feeling — might  yet  be  practica- 
ble. Yet  it  may  be  permitted  to  the  writer  to  say  that 
which  many,  who  are  not  of  the  Society,  would,  no  doubt, 
join  him  in  professing — that  a Wesleyan  Reform,  spontane- 
ously effected,  and  not  brought  about  by  violence,  and  which 
should  reanimate  the  body — should  restore  harmony  within 
it,  and  enable  it,  as  of  old,  to  move  outward  and  aggress- 
ively upon  the  impiety  that  surrounds  us,  would  deserve 
to  be  hailed  as  an  event  in  the  highest  degree  auspicious. 

Little  as  Wesley  could  have  imagined  such  a course  of 
things  as  likely  to  arise  from  the  constitution  he  gave  to 
his  Conference,  there  has  in  fact  resulted  from  it  this  sin- 
gular state  of  things — namely,  that,  in  respect  of  the  posi- 
tion of  the  ministers  toward  the  people,  which  is  that  of 
irresponsible  “lords  of  God’s  heritage,”  the  professedly 
Christian  world  is  thus  parted : — on  the  one  side  stand  all 
Protestant  Churches,  episcopal  and  non-episcopal,  Wes- 
leyanism  excepted ; on  the  other  side,  stands  the  Church 
of  Rome — with  its  sympathizing  adherents — the  malcon- 
tents of  the  English  Church,  and — the  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence ! This  position,  maintained  alone  by  a Protestant 
body,  must  be  regarded  as  false  in  principle,  and  as  in  an 
extreme  degree  ominous. 


246 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


WESLEYANISM,  A COEPOEATION  OE  ESTABLISHMENT. 

There  is  a problem  which  hitherto  has  received  no  so- 
lution, involving  those  conditions  under  which,  with  the 
least  damage  to  the  spirituality  of  the  Christian  system, 
and  with  the  most  advantage  to  it,  as  an  instrument  of 
good  to  mankind,  it  may  come  to  an  adjustment  among  the 
various  social  interests  wherewith  it  connects  itself,  and 
may  take  its  bearing  upon  the  palpable  matter  of  this 
world’s  elements.  In  regard  to  this  problem  it  may 
assuredly  be  said  that  those  who  have  devoted  to  it  the 
most  thought,  and  whose  temper  of  mind  is  the  most  tran- 
quil,. will  be  the  last  to  exult  over  those,  not  of  their  own 
Church,  whom  they  see  to  be  sorely  perplexed  in  contend- 
ing with  the  untoward  influences  that  arise  perpetually 
from  this  source. 

At  the  moment  when  Christianity  connects  itself,  as  it 
must  do,  with  the  things  of  this  world,  and  when  it  be- 
comes a visible  institution,  holding  property  in  stone,  and 
timber,  and  plots  of  ground,  and  having  to  deal  with  funds, 
stipends,  trusteeships,  pews,  taxation ; and,  in  a word, 
with  Law,  how  best  may  it  constitute  itself,  in  all  these 
uncongenial  relationships,  securing  its  high  intention  with 
the  least  detriment  to  itself? 

The  Church  of  Rome  has  always  dealt  with  this  problem 
in  a summary  manner ; that  is  to  say,  after  claiming  all 
things  on  earth,  as  well  as  in  Heaven,  as  its  own,  in  the 
most  absolute  sense,  it  then  finds  little  difficulty  in  granting 
out  of  these,  its  comprehensive  stores,  such  morsels  of  sus- 
tenance or  of  privilege  as  it  may  be  good  for  its  laity  to 
receive  and  use.  The  Romish  Church  is  a wise,  not  an 
indulgent,  mother,  who  feeds  her  babes,  whether  they  be 
kings,  nobles,  or  peasants,  with  her  spoon-meat,  in  such 
quantities  as  may  suit  their  feeble  stomachs.  But  it  is  not 
thus  that  modern  nations  and  Protestant  people  can  be 
treated. 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


247 


Those  who  occupy  Protestant  ground,  and  who  think, 
speak,  and  act  on  behalf  of  Protestant  communions,  should 
better  understand  their  own  principles,  and  should  be  more 
considerate  than  to  do  what  has  been  so  common,  namely, 
to  hush  the  evils,  the  abuses,  and  the  perplexities,  that 
beset  their  own  ecclesiastical  scheme,  while,  with  blast  of 
trumpet,  they  blazon  the  scandals  and  the  overthrows  that 
are  occurring  around  them.  Iri  this  course  there  is  as  lit- 
tle of  philosophic  breadth  of  mind,  as  of  Christian  temper. 
Some  most  desirable  reforms  would  cease  to  be  hopeless 
if  the  contrary  practice  were  adopted — namely,  if  the  wise 
and  honest  of  all  communions,  agreeing  to  put  to  silence 
their  own  noisy  fanatics — were,  each  communion  for  it- 
self, fairly  to  render  account  of  those  ascertained  evils 
which  might  be  considered  as  characteristic  of  each,  and, 
in  attempting  a remedy,  to  take  up  whatever  seemed  to 
be  better  contrived  in  other  communions.  Is  it  then  utterly 
chimerical  to  imagine,  as  a fact,  the  prevalence  of  so  much 
common  sense  as  this? — alas  if  it  be  so,  then  the  most 
despicable  passions  shall  have  a sway  allowed  them  on 
sacred  ground,  which  is  forbidden  them  upon  the  field  of 
this  world’s  affairs  ! 

Protestant  communions,  one  toward  another,  as  they 
stand  related — in  common,  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  or  let 
us  say,  the  Papacy — should  feel  as  do  constitutional  and 
representative  governments,  as  related  to  the  unmixed 
despotisms  of  Russia  or  Naples.  How  urgent  and  for- 
midable are  the  embarrassments  inseparable  from  the 
working  of  even  the  best-adjusted  representative  polity ! 
— and  how  near  at  hand  and  efficacious  is  the  one  remedy  ! 
— let  us  of  the  West  invite  the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias 
to  take  upon  himself  the  administration  of  the  perplexed 
affairs  of  Europe,  and  the  heaving  billows  instantly  are 
calmed — the  winds  are  down — silence  and  order  reign 
through  the  world  ! But  are  we  prepared  to  invite  this 
tranquillity,  at  this  cost  ? A like  remedy  is  available  to 
the  Protestant  world,  if  only  it  will  return  to  its  obedience 
to  Rome. 


248 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


The  alternative — that  is  to  say,  the  cost  at  which  liberty 
political  or  religious,  is  to  be  had  and  maintained — ^is  the 
having  to  contend  perpetually  with  the  difficulties  that 
arise  in  the  working  of  institutions  which  in  themselves 
are  always  compromises  between  theory  and  practice,  and 
which  go  on,  one  knows  not  how,  from  year  to  year, 
working  by  and  through,  and  in  spite  of,  their  unadjusted 
antagonisms : inconsistent  always  they  are ; nevertheless 
they  yield  to  us — to  us  Protestants — the  priceless  benefits 
of  life,  political  and  religious — life  and  liberty,  in  compari- 
son with  which  the  false  advantages  of  despotism  are  not 
more  to  be  desired  than  are  the  silence  and  the  putrefaction 
of  a sepulchre. 

Every  one  of  our  religious  communions  is,  in  fact  and 
law,  an  Establishment  ; and  as  such  it  is  liable  to  those 
entanglements,  and  is  open  to  those  abuses  which  attach, 
in  the  very  nature  of  things,  to  religious  interests,  when 
they  come  to  be  legally  associated  with  secular  interests. 
The  difference  between  one  mode  of  establishing  a religious 
community  and  another  mode,  is  substantially  this,  that, 
while  an  incomplete  establishment  holds  itself  exempt  from 
some  abuses,  it  secures  this  immunity  by  means  of  a pro- 
portionate degree  of  inefficiency  and  limitation : whereas 
a complete  establishment — a thorough  Church-and-State 
system,  open  as  it  is,  and  must  be,  to  many  and  great 
abuses,  occupies  that  only  position  whence,  in  ample  meas- 
ure, the  highest  purposes  of  visible  Christianity  can  be 
secured. 

Much  that  may  claim  to  be  considered  when,  as  now, 
Wesleyan  Methodism  is  spoken  of  as  an  establishment^  or 
an  institution  giving  organic  action  to  visible  Christianity, 
might,  with  nearly  equal  propriety,  have  been  treated  of 
under  one  or  other  of  the  preceding  heads  ; for  in  fact  the 
distribution  of  subjects,  in  this  instance,  can  not  be  perfectly 
logical,  or  be  very  clearly  defined.  Regarded  either  as  a 
system  of  discipline  for  the  people  or  as  an  establishment, 
Wesley’s  institute  has  a high  merit  on  this  ground — that 
SOCIAL  ORGANIZATION  SO  thoroughly  pervades  it  and  is  its 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


249 


very  soul,  and  is  carried  out  from  its  centre  to  its  extremi- 
ties, taking  hold  of,  assimilating,  and  employing  absolutely 
every  individual  who  is  enrolled  on  its  lists.  On  this 
ground  no  church  or  society  has  gone  so  far,  or  can  be 
brought  into  comparison  with  it ; and  to  this  very  cause — 
that  is  to  say,  to  the  thoroughness,  if  so  we  might  say — of 
the  Wesleyan  organization — must  be  attributed,  in  great 
measure,  the  unexampled  rapidity  of  its  spread,  and,  until 
of  late,  the  tenacity  of  its  hold  where  once  it  has  taken 
possession  of  a field  of  labor. 

In  other  communions,  if  organization  has  been  elaborate 
and  complete,  as  with  the  Society  of  Friends,  it  has  been 
much  more  upon  the  seclusive,  than  upon  an  expansive 
principle,  and  the  causes  of  the  stagnant  condition  of  the 
body  are  conspicuous.  But  in  the  Wesleyan  community 
organization  has  always  had  one  intention,  namely,  sys- 
tematic labor — a labor  sustained  by  systematic  excite- 
ments, and  having  an  expansive  purpose  as  its  object.  Its 
stated  and  very  frequent  gatherings,  whether  for  purposes 
of  worship,  public  or  select,  or  for  the  transaction  of  its 
routine  business,  combine  always  the  two  elements — that 
is  to  say,  excitement,  or  excitation  rather,  and  the  appor- 
tionment and  the  reporting  of  the  work  allotted  to  each. 
No  Wesleyan  Methodist  (where  the  system  has  had  its  free 
course)  falls  out  of  notice,  or  is  suffered  to  lapse  into  for- 
getfulness, or  is  left  as  an  inert  fragment,  not  partaking 
of  the  momentum  of  the  mass.  An  organization  which 
touches  every  one,  and  brings  every  one  into  his  place, 
and  exacts  from  every  one  his  contribution,  spiritual  and 
secular — an  organization  which  is  comprehensive  in  the 
most  absolute  sense  as  io persons,  gifts,  talents,  and  worldly 
means,  is  that  which  has  secured  for  Wesleyan  Methodism 
— until  of  late,  its  foremost  place  among  the  Protestant 
communities  of  England  and  America,  and  which  has 
given  to  its  labors  among  the  heathen  a proportionately 
greater  amount  of  success  than  has  attended  the  equally 
zealous  endeavors  of  other  bodies,  perhaps  of  several  such 
bodies  reckoned  together. 


S50  WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 

It  must  be,  of  course,  with  an  explanation  appended, 
that  one  should  affirm  Wesleyan  Methodism  not  to  be  a 
voluntary  society ; for  undoubtedly  no  compulsion  draws 
you  into  it,  and  none  prevents  your  secession.  Yet  there 
is  another,  a deeper,  and  a far  more  pertinent  sense  of  the 
term  voluntary,  in  which  sense  it  could  not  well  be  ap- 
plied to  this  religious  association.  Saving  the  civil  liberty 
not  to  enter  it,  and  the  same  liberty  to  depart  at  pleasure, 
every  thing  within  the  Wesleyan  inclosure  is  strictly  com- 
pulsory, or  is  the  very  opposite  of  voluntary.  No  place, 
no  indulgence  will  it  allow  (we  are  speaking  of  Wesley- 
anism,  such  as  the  Founder  made  and  left  it),  no  place  for 
‘‘doing  as  you  please,’’  or  for  doing  nothing,  or  for  giving 
nothing,  or  for  rendering  no  account  of  yourself,  or  for 
kicking  against  constituted  authorities,  or  for  putting  con- 
tempt upon  regulations.  No  place  has  it  for,  no  license 
does  it  grant  to,  the  willfulness,  the  individual  whims  or 
preferences,  the  laxity,  the  precariousness,  the  indiffer- 
ence, the  dronish  incapacity,  and  the  inertness  that  belong 
to,  and  that  flourish  under  the  soft  maternal  wings  of  vol- 
untary Churches.  Stand  off  from  Wesleyan  Methodism — 
if  you  please  ; but  if  you  touch  it,  if  you  enter  your  name 
upon  its  lists,  you  are  voluntary  no  longer ; or  not  until 
you  secede. 

The  great  modern  experiment  that  has  been  exhibited 
by  Wesleyan  Methodism,  might  be  held  quite  sufficient 
for  establishing  the  principle  that  a working  force,  or  social 
religious  power,  must  be  the  result  of  organization,  so  car- 
ried out  into  detail,  and  so  applied  to  the  total  religious 
behavior  of  each  member  of  the  body,  as  shall  thoroughly 
discharge  from  the  mass  whatever  is  properly  spontane- 
ous, or  which  has  its  rise  in,  and  draws  its  impulse  from, 
the  bosom  of  the  individual.  If  individually  you  must  re- 
tain entire  your  spontaneousness  and  your  personal  liberty, 
you  must  forego  the  animating  consciousness  of  being  a 
member  of  a spreading  and  powerful  community.  If,  in 
the  fullest  sense  you  will  and  must  be  free,  you  should  be 
content  to  walk  in  and  out  of  church  or  chapel,  on  Sunday, 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


251 


(o  pay  for  a sitting,  and  to  greet  your  minister  with  a 
courteous  distance-making  smile,  as  often  as  you  chance  to 
encounter  him  on  your  path;  but  you  must  eschew  organ- 
ization, whence,  and  whence  alone,  springs  power ; and 
power,  in  all  instances,  costs  the  liberty  of  the  individual. 

A well  rounded  territorial  occupation  of  the  soil  on 
which  it  enters,  has,  from  the  first,  been  the  characteristic 
of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  and,  doubtless,  a main  cause  of 
its  successes,  especially  as  compared  with  its  sister  Meth- 
odism— the  Calvinistic,  which  has  been  spoi^dic  only, 
or  topical.  Every  elastic  fluid — say  the  chemists — is  a 
vacuum  to  every  other,  and  this  principle  holds  good,  to 
some  extent,  in  the  social  system.  In  a country  where 
perfect  toleration  is  law,  religious  bodies,  keeping  them- 
selves exempt  from  the  arrogance  and  the  treachery  of 
Rome,  and  from  sectarian  encroachments,  one  upon  an- 
other, may  frame  themselves,  harmlessly  and  usefully,  on 
the  assumption  of  a plenary  territorial  occupancy  of  the 
land.  Two,  three,  or  more  of  such  elastic  bodies  may, 
without  any  offensive  interference  one  with  another,  thus 
stretch  their  line  over  counties  and  provinces ; and  may 
become,  each  according  to  its  ability,  geographically  in- 
tegral. It  is  true  that  geographical  designations,  associ- 
ated with  whatever  is  great  in  the  history  of  a country, 
seem  to  draw  with  them  a grotesque  inconsistency  when 
we  chance  to  hear  them  linked  with  the  small  doings  of 
obscure  bodies  ; but  it  is  not  so  when  the  topical  and  ter- 
ritorial designation  is  well  borne  out  by  courses  of  arduous 
and  successful  labor,  and  when  tens  of  thousands  of  the 
people  swell  the  muster-roll  of  provinces.  It  is  energy 
and  success,  exempt  from  suspicion  of  a treasonable  am- 
bition, that  redeem  territorial  titles  from  contempt. 

On  the  one  hand,  without  itinerancy  there  will  be  no 
evangelic  expansion  ; and,  on  the  other,  without  territorial 
occupation  there  can  be  no  permanency,  and  no  entireness 
of  the  Christian  influence,  as  related  especially  to  the 
rural  districts  of  a country.  Paganism — using  the  word 
in  its  original  meaning — yields  to  nothing  but  a territorial 


252 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


and  a parochial  church-system,  carried  out  and  maintained, 
as  a public  service,  and  which,  in  the  most  absolute  sense, 
must  be  irrespective  of  the  expressed  or  the  anticipated 
wishes  and  contributions  of  those  for  whose  benefit  it  is 
effected. 

Wesley anism  has,  in  a good  degree,  woi*ked  upon  this 
two-fold  principle,  and  thus,  to  so  great  an  extent  has  it 
dispelled  the  paganism,  if  not  of  the  rural  districts  of  En- 
gland, yet  of  its  towns  and  cities ; and  it  has  done  so  where, 
during  the  lapse  of  one,  two,  or  three  centuries,  the  Gospel, 
in  the  keeping  of  less  enterprising  bodies,  has  lain  embed- 
ded, as  rough  diamonds  do,  in  masses  which  they  neither 
illuminate  nor  adorn. 

Thus  far  then,  by  its  effective  organization,  by  its  spirit 
of  order,  by  its  machine-like  adjustments,  and  its  planting 
itself  territorially  upon  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land, 
Wesleyan  Methodism,  considered  as  an  establishment  of 
visible  Christianity,  has  been  excelled  by  no  religious  in- 
stitute of  ancient  or  modern  times ; or  at  least  it  has  not 
been  surpassed  by  any  as  to  efficiency,  and  the  moral  force 
or  power  which  has  been  generated  within  it.  Why  then 
should  it  not  continue  to  spread  itself,  and  to  prosper  as  at 
first?  It  may  or  it  might  yet  do  so,  and  Christian  men 
must  wish  it,  until  they  see  its  place  supplied  by  other 
means  ; but  whence  arises  the  foreboding  which  indicates 
a different  issue  ? 

If  it  were  alleged  that  some  Wesleyan  practices — ob- 
iectionable  always,  are  constantly  becoming  more  so  ; or 
are  found  to  be  less  and  less  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  ot 
the  times,  we  should  reply  that — in  this  and  other  instances, 
the  system  will,  doubtless,  learn  to  adapt  itself  to  the 
progress  of  society,  and  will  know  how  to  assimilate  its 
usages  to  the  growth,  or  to  the  shiftings  of  the  religious 
mind  around  it.  Such  imperfections,  therefore,  do  not  ne- 
cessarily involve  Methodism  in  any  serious  risk,  as  to  the 
permanence  of  the  body : it  can  never  be  that  a great  and 
useful  institution,  administered  by  intelligent  mem  should 
dissolve  from  causes  such  as  these. 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


253 


But  Wesleyan  theology,  is  it  not  much  at  fault?  Can 
it  be  thought  possible  that  the  ill-digested  and  antagonistic 
mass — the  heterogeneous  congeries  of  religious  opinions 
spread  over  the  pages  of  the  Founder’s  writings,  should 
stand  intact  another  century,  and  should  continue  to  com- 
mand the  assent  of  an  educated  body  of  ministers,  through 
the  term  of  the  present,  and  the  next  generation  ? This  it 
might  be  hard  to  believe  ; and  yet  if  difficulties  of  another 
sort  did  not  meet  us  on  this  ground,  there  would  be  room 
to  suppose  that  a wise  and  silently  effected  consignment 
of  Wesley’s  theological  writings  to  a respectful  oblivion, 
would  leave  room  for  the  advancement  of  the  Wesleyan 
ministry  at  once  in  religious  intelligence,  and  in  scriptural 
consistency. 

Oi’,  might  we  not  advance  a step  further,  and  suppose 
that  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  prompted  by  the 
ominous  indications  ol  popular  feeling,  not  to  mention  relig- 
ious motives  of  a higher  order,  would  bring  about,  sooner 
or  later,  and  before  it  be  too  late,  such  a reconstruction  of 
Wesleyanism,  as  a hierarchy,  as  might  at  once  give  rea- 
sonable contentment  to  the  laity,  and  bring  the  body  clean 
over  from  its  present  false  position  upon  ultramontane 
ground,  and  place  it,  where  it  should  stand,  in  contiguity 
with  other  Protestant  communions?  But  here  we  are 
peremptorily  told,  that  no  such  reformatory  movement, 
even  although  seen  to  be  indispensable  to  the  preservation 
of  the  Society,  is,  in  the  very  nature  of  things  possible ! 
The  very  idea  of  change  should  therefore  be  dismissed  as 
chimerical.  The  Wesleyan  laity  petitions — the  Wesleyan 
ministry  (let  us  suppose  it)  would  gladly  yield  itself  to  be 
constituted  anew,  for  its  own  sake,  even ; but  itself,  and 
the  people,  and  the  Court  of  Chancery,  and  Parliament., 
are  in  this  unparalleled  instance  alike  powerless  ! We 
assent  then  to  this  lamentable  decision  ; and,  ceasing  to  in- 
dulge fruitless  regrets,  turn  for  a moment  to  consider  the 
instructive  fact  that  a mind,  such  as  that  of  John  Wesley, 
should  thus,  while  intending  to  secure  the  permanence  of 
his  Institute,  so  far  have  misapprehended  the  constant  and 


264 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


inevitable  tendency  of  human  affairs  as  to  have  rendered 
its  continuance,  every  year,  more  and  more  difficult  and 
precarious,  from  the  moment  of  his  death,  up  to  the  pres- 
ent time. 

A vast  property  in  chapels  and  other  effects  had  been 
created  by  the  Methodistic  movement,  as  governed  by 
Wesley;  and  it  had  become  imperatively  necessary  to  bring 
it  fairly  out  from  among  the  shoals  and  the  sunken  reefs 
where  then  it  floated  at  hazard,  and  to  lodge  it  securely, 
for  the  purposes  intended,  upon  the  terra  firma  of  law.  In 
a word,  Wesleyanism  was  to  become,  as  every  form  of 
visible  Christianity  always  must — an  Establishment — an 
endowed  institution,  and  a holder  of  lands,  goods,  and 
revenues,  subjected  to  conditions  such  as  should  be  intel- 
ligible in  courts  of  justice,  and  such  as  should  entitle  it  to 
the  benefits  of  a readily  available  civil  protection. 

The  problem  then  to  be  resolved  was  one  of  a class 
which  would  be  o*omplicated  and  difficult  even  if  the  pur- 
poses and  interests  that  are  to  be  legally  secured  were  all 
purely  secular  and  homogeneous  ; but  when  these  pur- 
poses and  these  beneficiary  interests  involve  things  so 
heterogeneous  as  are  palpable  properties,  civil  rights,  and 
religious  principles,  opinions,  usages,  and  modes  of  feeling, 
the  difficulties  inherent  in  the  subject  assume  the  most  for- 
midable aspect.  It  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  no  ques- 
tion of  social  and  legal  adjustment  is  more  perplexing  than 
this. 

In  no  instance,  hitherto,  have  circumstances  been  alto- 
gether favorable  for  dealing  with  this  problem  on  any 
abstract  principle,  whether  religious  or  legal.  Churches 
and  communities  have  done  the  best  they  could,  or  what 
seemed  to  them  the  best,  in  ridding  themselves  of  urgent 
perplexities,  rather  than  in  satisfying  their  better  convic- 
tions. Protestant  Churches,  at  the  best,  are  reparations 
of  ruins : they  are  not  normal  structures  ; and  so  it  is  that, 
in  looking  into  them  from  without,  occasion  is  never  lack- 
ing to  those  who  seek  it,  for  making  up  heavy  indictments 
on  the  score  of  those  abuses  and  disorders  that  maybe  at- 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


255 


tributed  to  the  intrinsic  faults  of  the  system.  On  this  field 
narrow  minds,  inflamed  by  a sectarian  temper,  find  it  easy 
to  fill  their  catalogue  of  scandals. 

The  best  imaginable  church  establishment,  as  it  can  be 
nothing  better  than  a compromise,  effected  among  and 
between  irreconcilable’  interests,  the  choice  before  us,  in 
any  instance,  will  be  of  this  sort — namely,  we  may  take  to 
ourselves  a scheme  embracing  the  greatest  objects,  and 
ikely  to  secure  extensive  practical  benefits,  yet  liable — in 
the  nature  of  things — the  world  being  such  as  it  is — to 
abuses  and  perversions.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  timidly 
contenting  ourselves  with  the  minimum  of  efficiency,  the 
smallest  compass  of  resulting  advantages,  we  may  exclude, 
not  entirely,  but  to  some  extent,  the  liability  to  abuse  and 
perversion.  Somewhere  betw^een  these  extremes  every 
Protestant  Church  hitherto  has  taken  up  its  position. 

In  making  his  choice,  on  this  ground,  Wesley’s  tempera- 
ment signally  displays  itself.  The  decisively  practical 
tendency  of  his  mind,  his  energy,  courage,  and  prompti- 
tude, at  once  impelled  him  to  aim  at  the  most  extensive 
results,  and  to  embrace  and  secure,  at  all  risks,  the  high 
benefits  which  his  burning  zeal  taught  him  to  desire  and 
pursue.  He  was  not  the  man  to  please  himself  with  a 
faultless  ideal — so  faultless,  that  it  could  be  made  to  work 
only  on  the  most  diminutive  scale — a Church  fn  a cornei 
— or  a machine,  exquisite  in  contrivance,  but  never  to  be 
turned  to  any  good  account.  But  in  thus  boldly  devising 
his  system,  the  high  tone  of  his  mind,  its  lofty  moral 
aspirings,  his  abhorrence  of  laxities,  and  his  intolerance 
of  perfunctory  remissness,  led  him  to  adopt  a complica- 
ted disciplinatory  system — remedial  and  preventative,  by 
means  of  which,  as  he  thought — and,  on  the  whole,  his 
anticipations  have  not  been  falsified — the  pi'oblem  would 
be  solved,  and  a religious  machinery  constructed  which, 
while  it  embraced  the  widest  purposes,  should  hold  itself 
exempt  from  abuses ; that  is  to  say,  that  it  would  be  at 
once  efficient  and  pure. 

The  unexampled  successes  of  Wesleyan  Methodism, 


256 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


during  its  first  fifty  years,  afford  ample  evidence  of  its 
Founder’s  sagacity,  and,  one  might  say,  genius,  on  this 
peculiar  ground.  The  difficult  problem  of  a religious  In- 
stitute, broadly  based,  and  in  the  highest  degree  efficient 
for  its  purposes,  and  at  the  same  time  in  a great  degree 
exempt  from  disorders  and  abuses,  was  so  far  solved. 
That  was  done  which  no  founder  of  an  institution  hitherto 
had  done ; but  it  was  in  fact  done  by  aid  of  the  silent 
energy  of  his  own  personal  influence — an  influence  never 
surpassed,  perhaps  never  equaled,  by  any  human  being 
who  has  individually  swayed  the  minds  of  his  fellows. 
Wesley  was  well  conscious  of  this  influence ; but  he  would 
not  allow  himself  to  give  it  a definite  expression,  as  a force 
or  element,  making  up  the  sum  of  Wesleyan  effective 
power ; and  therefore  he  did  not,  or  it  does  not  appear 
that  he  did,  distinctly  consider  how  this  same  mechanism 
was  to  work  when  that  single  energy  should  fail.  The 
Wesleyan  system,  at  the  moment  when  it  came  to  work 
on  its  own  proper  forces,  showed  what  had  been  the  mis- 
calculation of  its  contriver,  as  to  futurity.  The  few  years 
of  Wesley’s  decrepitude  gave  indications  of  troubles  to 
come,  and  almost  at  the  moment  of  his  death  those  troubles 
broke  out  which,  at  intervals,  have  convulsed  the  Society 
during  the  course  of  fifty  years,  which  have  thrown  off 
several  large  secessions,  and  which  perpetually  threaten 
its  utter  dissolution. 

Wesley’s  function,  through  the  later  years  of  his  life, 
whatever  else  it  might  embrace,  was  mainly  that  of  Medi- 
ator between  his  people  and  the  irresponsible  body  of 
ministers  which  he  had  called  into  existence.  This  medi- 
atorship,  so  natural  in  its  origin,  and  so  efficacious  always, 
as  he  found  it,  for  the  preservation  or  restoration  of  peace 
and  order,  seems  to  have  blinded  from  his  view  the  ill- 
boding  fact  that  his  people  and  their  ministers — the  gov- 
erning body — the  legal  hundred,  did  not  stand  related,  the 
one  to  the  other,  in  any  constitutional  manner,  whether 
for  better  or  worse:  clergy  and  laity  were  forces  having 
absolutely  no  structural  relationship  the  one  to  the  other. 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


251 


A Vital  or  spiritual  relationship  did,  or  might,  subsist  be- 
tween them  ; that  is  to"  say,  the  people  did,  and  might  long 
continue  to  love  and  venerate  their  ministers ; and  these 
might  continue  well  to  deserve  their  affectionate  esteem. 
The  people  might  be  always  willing  implicitly  to  obey, 
and  the  ministers  might  so  exercise  an  uncontrolled  des- 
potic power  as  should  give  no  occasion  of  complaint,  and 
generate  no  impatience.  That  a relationship  so  fearfully 
precarious  as  this  should  actually  have  availed  so  long,  and 
so  far  as  it  has,  to  conserve  Wesleyan  Methodism,  speaks 
much  in  behalf  of  the  merits  and  temper  of  the  governing 
body ; but  more  in  behalf  of  the  Christian  feeling  of  the 
governed  ; and  strikingly  does  it  illustrate  that  excellence 
of  Christianity  itself  w^hich  avails  to  carry  ill-contrived 
human  systems  through  the  roughest  waters. 

Nothing  in  the  compass  of  literature  can  be  at  once 
more  sharply  logical,  or  more  thoroughly  unphilosophical 
than  are  Wesley’s  reasonings,  in  support  of  ministerial  ab- 
solutism, and  in  enforcing  the  duty  of  popular  submissive- 
ness. With  a heart  that  would  have  grieved  to  injure  any 
man  in  the  smallest  matter,  he  upheld  a Church  theory  on 
the  ground  of  which  heretics,  in  troops,  might  consistently 
be  burned.  This  misunderstanding  of  the  first  principles 
of  Apostolic  Christianity  came,  in  his  mind,  to  an  awkward 
misadjustment  with  his  determination  not  to  construct  a 
Church,  but  a Society  only ; and  so  it  was — strange  medley 
of  incongruities  ! that  he  left  in  the  hands  of  a body  of 
preachers^  whom  he  would  not  consent  to  think  of  as 
Clergy,  a power  as  irresponsible  and  absolute  as  that 
which  the  most  despotic  hierarchy  has  ever  challenged  as 
its  right,  by  ordinance  of  Heaven  ! 

These  anomalies  might,  however,  have  worked  them- 
selves insensibly  into  some  sort  of  accordance,  if  Wesley- 
anism,  as  a purely  religious  institute,  could  have  held  itself 
remote  from  those  embarrassments  that  attend  always,  and 
unavoidably,  the  legal  settlement  of  properties  and  reve- 
nues, held  and  enjoyed  for  religious  purposes.  In  his 
mode  of  adjusting  these  legal  relationships,  Wesley — not 


258 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


from  motives  of  personal  ambition — no  stain  of  which  at- 
tached to  his  moral  nature — not  from  vanity  or  egotism 
but  at  the  impulse  of  the  Founder’s  prepossession — the  In- 
ventor’s plenitude  of  feeling,  concerning  his  own  Idea,  took 
that  course  which  brings  with  it  the  maximum  of  embar- 
rassment and  difficulty;  that  is  to  say,  he  lodged  the 
Wesleyan  property,  the  dues  of  the  ministers,  and  the 
rights  of  his  people,  upon  the  irresponsible  will  of  a self- 
perpetuated  body  of  ministerial  persons,  and  these  ruled, 
and  overruled,  by  a voluminous  and  heterogeneous  mass 
of  polemical  writings  ! 

Whether  or  not  a religious  society  be  endowed  with 
revenues  drawn  from  other  sources,  its  plots  of  ground,  and 
the  structures  thereupon  erected,  its  places  of  worship,  its 
ministerial  residences,  its  school  houses,  and  the  like,  espe- 
cially when  held  by  those  whose  holding  is  a fee  simple, 
constitute  a property,  and  give  rise  to  claims  of  which  the 
State,  in  its  courts  of  law  and  equity,  must  of  necessity  be 
cognizant,  and  of  which  it  must  be — as  of  all  other  rights, 
claims, and  properties — the  guardian,  or  Trustee  General. 

Such  trusteeship  the  State  may  exercise  immediately, 
by  its  own  officers ; or  mediately,  that  is,  as  the  ulterior 
authority  or  court  of  appeal,  when  disagreements  arise 
between  private  trustees  and  the  parties  claiming  to  be 
beneficially  interested  in  the  property  so  devised,  and 
when  called  upon  by  either  party  to  protect  its  invaded  or 
disputed  rights. 

The  several  elements  of  the  matter  in  hand,  when  a re- 
ligious body  seeks  to  make  the  State  legally  cognizant  of 
its  corporate  existence,  and  to  place  itself  and  its  property 
within  the  precincts  of  legal  protection,  are  these  four : — 
First.  That  which  may  be  called  i\\e  final  cause,  or  ulte- 
rior intention  of  the  corporation,  holding  or  managing  the 
property  in  question : thus  the  care  and  cure  of  the  in- 
digent sick  is  the  final  cause  of  an  hospital,  as  it  is  the 
ulterior  destination  of  the  revenues  that  may  have  been 
created  for  its  support.  The  three  other  matters  are 
means,  drawing  their  rule  and  reason  wholly  from  their 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


259 


fitness  to  subserve  and  to  secure  the  final  purpose  of  the 
institution,  or,  as  we  say,  the  “Charity.”  Thej^r^^  of  these 
three  means  is  the  nomination  of  trustees,  in  whom  is 
vested  the  legal  property,  and  the  determination  of  their 
powers  and  responsibilities  as  such.  The  second  embraces 
the  rights,  claims,  duties,  and  responsibilities  of  those  to 
whom  is  to  be  confided,  from  time  to  time,  the  actual  per- 
formance of  the  work  implied  in  giving  effect  to  the  said 
Charity,  so  as  that  its  benefits  shall  indeed,  and  in  full 
measure,  reach  the  persons  whose  welfare  is  in  view.  In 
the  instance  of  an  hospital,  the  persons  contemplated  un- 
der this  head  are  the  visiting  governors,  the  physicians, 
the  surgeons,  with  their  assistants,  the  nurses,  porters,  and 
other  servants  of  the  house.  The  third  of  these  instru- 
mental matters  are  those  conditions  and  restrictions,  those 
rules,  customs,  costumes,  and  orders,  if  any,  in  conformity 
with  which  the  beneficent  intention  of  the  Charity  is  to  be 
carried  out,  and  its  revenues  administered.  Thus,  for  ex- 
ample, it  may  be  determined  by  the  founders  of  such  an 
institution — an  hospital,  let  us  suppose — that  the  physi- 
cians and  surgeons  elected  to  fill  its  lucrative  appoint- 
ments, shall  for  ever  be  such  as  will  bind  themselves  to 
practice  medicine  and  surgery  according  to  the  principles 
laid  down  in  the  writings  of  Hippocrates,  or  of  Galen,  or 
of  Hunter,  or  any  other.  The  founder,  or  founders,  may 
furthermore  insist  upon  compliance  with  a hundred  minute 
regulations,  as  to  hours,  liveries,  expenditure,  diet,  and 
what  not.  It  must  be  granted  that  no  principle  of  natural 
justice  is  infringed  upon  when  a munificent  Thomas  Guy 
thus  devotes  a princely  fortune  to  a purpose  so  good,  and 
when  he  uses  his  undoubted  right  as  benefactor,  in  tying 
down  trustees,  governors,  physicians,  surgeons,  nurses,  and 
patients  too,  by  even  a complicated  tissue  of  regulations, 
w^hether  these  laws  be  wise  or  unwise. 

Some  obscurity  might,  however,  seem  to  be  thrown 
oveAhis  case  of  conscience  (as  to  the  founder’s  right  ot 
prospective  legislation)  if,  in  fact,  the  property  devised, 
instead  of  its  being,  in  the  simplest  sense,  his  own,  had,  by 


?60 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


his  exertions  and  influence,  been  accumulated  in  the  mode 
of  contributions  from  his  friends,  or  the  public  at  large,  the 
intention  of  such  donations  being  stated  and  understood 
on  all  sides.  In  that  case,  indeed,  if  no  stipulations,  for- 
mal or  virtual^  had  accompanied  these  contributions,  the 
founder  must  be  held  free  to  legislate  as  he  might  have 
done  in  relation  to  his  own. 

Now,  in  fact,  it  is  in  this  last-named  instance  that  we 
find  the  nearest  case  of  analogy  that  can  be  found  at  all, 
illustrative  of  the  course  taken  by  Wesley  in  lodging  hi^ 
Society,  side  by  side,  with  other  legally  constituted  char- 
itable corporations.  It  is  in  this  light — and  in  no  other, 
that  the  “ Deed  of  Declaration,”  and  the  regular  Trust 
Deeds  of  the  Chapels,  and  the  “ Minutes  at  large,”  and 
those  passages  in  his  writings  which  are  usually  appealed 
to  in  this  argument,  can  so  be  read  as  to  seem  consistent 
with  any  admitted  and  general  principles  of  law,  or  of  ab- 
stract justice.  Wesleyan  Methodism,  with  its  properties, 
its  chapels,  its  residences,  its  body  of  ministers,  its  officers, 
of  all  grades,  is,  or  constitutes,  an  hospital,  dispensing — 
and  it  well  and  usefully  dispenses — spiritual  remedies,  and 
affording  spiritual  curative  attendance  to  the  people ; — 
these  having  been  persuaded  to  accept  such  benefits,  if 
not  freely  or  gratuitously  rendered,  yet  rendered  on  terms 
fair  and  advantageous,  on  the  whole,  to  the  recipients. 

All  is  intelligible,  if  the  Wesleyan  institute  be  looked  at 
in  this  light,  that  is  to  say,  as  a widely-extended  spiritual 
“Charity.”  Nothing  is  intelligible,  nothing  in  the  social 
and  political  structure  of  this  scheme  consists  with  the  ad- 
mitted principles  of  social  justice  ; — by  no  ingenuity,  by  no 
refinements  of  interpretation,  can  Wesleyanism  be  brought 
into  harmony  with  the  unquestionable  rudiments  of  the 
apostolic-church  system,  if  we  are  resolved  to  consider 
and  to  defend  it,  as  if  it  were  intended  to  be  a Church,  or 
an  equipoised  association  of  Christian  men,  miiTisters  and 
people. 

A few  terms,  and  names  substituted,  and  then  the  “ Deed 
of  Declaration,”  enrolled  in  Chancery,  and  signed  and 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


261 


sealed  by  John  Wesley  in  1784,  will  read  well  as  the  Will 
of  the  founder  of  an  hospital  or  dispensary,  or  of  any  simi- 
lar institution,  intended  to  afford  needed  benefits  to  who- 
ever, in  all  time  future,  might  be  willing  to  accept  them, 
on  the  conditions  named.  Wesley anism,  thus  considered, 
offers  to  the  eye  nothing  that  is  despotic,  nothing  repre- 
hensible, nothing  which  should,  or,  indeed,  which  could, 
give  rise  to  a turbulent  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  recip- 
ients of  this  eleemosynary  good.  The  only  ground  of 
exception  that  could  be  taken  against  so  noble  a charity 
would  be  of  this  sort — to  return  to  our  analogy — It  is  a 
pity  that  a body  of  physicians  and  surgeons  should,  at  this 
time  of  day,  and  when  medical  science  has  been  so  much 
advanced,  be  compelled  to  practice  according  to  Hippo- 
crates !” 

If  it  would  not  seem  trifling  with  what  is  so  serious, 
one  might  be  tempted  to  transcribe  the  Deed  of  Declara- 
tion entire,  making  therein  no  other  changes  than  the 
leaving  blanks  for  the  names  of  the  parties,  and  substitut- 
ing, for  the  recurrent  phrase  “to  preach  and  expound 
God’s  holy  word” — this — to  practice  physic  and  surgery, 
and  to  dispense  medicines.  In  this  case,  the  “ Thomas 
Guy”  is  our  “Rev.  John  Wesley” — the  annual  “Confer- 
ence” is  an  annual  meeting  of  life  governors  and  directors, 
these  having  the  power,  uncontrolled,  to  fill  up  vacancies 
in  their  number,  and  to  expel  obnoxious  individuals.  The 
only  difference  being  this,  that  these  same  governors  and 
directors,  accountable  to  none  for  their  collective  conduct, 
stand  also  in  the  position  of  the  physicians  and  surgeons 
of  the  hospital ; and  thus  they  have  charged  themselves 
with  the  blended  responsibilities  of  those  who  appoint  to 
certain  functions,  and  of  those  who  discharge  such  func- 
tions ! 

In  this  declaratory  document,  which  may  be  regarded 
as  the  Magna  Charta  of  Wesleyanism,  w^hich  was  pre- 
pared with  the  utmost  care,  and  which  embodies  the 
Founder’s  mind  and  principles,  as  matured  at  a late  period 
of  his  public  life,  namely,  more  than  forty  years  after  the 


262 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


origin  of  the  Society — in  this  document  not  one  word 
meets  the  eye  of  a reader  who,  uninstructed  in  Wesleyan 
lore,  but  well  conversant  with  the  apostolic  writings,  and 
not  ignorant  of  Church  history,  looks  into  it,  not  doubting 
that  he  shall  therein  find  a formal  recognition  of  the  rights 
and  claims  of  the  Christian  laity.  No  such  recognition — 
no  saving  allusion  to  the  mass — the  people,  to  those  to 
whom  the  apostolic  epistles  are  immediately  addressed — 
‘‘  the  saints  and  faithful  brethren  in  Christ  Jesus,”  is  therein 
discoverable  ! 

Hopeless  then  must  be  the  endeavor  to  expound  the 
Wesleyan  establishment  on  any  principle  that  is  purely 
and  properly  religious,  or  that  is  distinctively  Christian. 
It  is  a charitable  foundation,  supported,  in  part  by  “ vol- 
untary contributions  but  governed,  absolutely,  by  a close 
corporation,  perpetuating  itself  by  its  own  actsjfrom  with- 
in. Thus  considered,  we  ought  neither  to  wonder,  nor  to 
complain,  if  the  ‘‘  patients”  or  people  find  no  place  in  the 
charter. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  idea  had  at  any  time  pre- 
sented itself  to  Wesley,  when  thinking  of  his  society — of 
a christianized  body — a congregation  of  faithful  men,  in- 
structed, religiously  intelligent,  and  competent  to  take  the 
place,  and  to  discharge  the  functions  that  are  implied  and 
supposed  in  the  apostolic  writings,  as  belonging  to  the 
People,  the  body  of  the  Faithful.  We  may  understand 
how  it  was  that  this  idea — this  church  aspect  of  the  Chris- 
tian system,  did  not  force  itself  upon  his  thoughts.  But 
even  if  it  had,  his  principles,  in  relation  to  government, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical,  were,  in  a high  degree,  autocratic, 
if  not  despotic.  If  he  had  come  into  the  place  of  certain 
noted  hierarchs  of  past  ages,  his  course  would  have  been 
theirs.  With  a fervent  and  paternal  love  he  loved  “ his 
people but  the  notion  of  a Christian  laity,  as  something 
more  than  the  patients  of  an  hospital,  or  the  recipients  of 
“ relief,”  he  does  not  seem  to  have  entertained,  and  there- 
fore he  made  no  provision  for  the  constitutional  govern- 
ment of  the  Society  in  perpetuity. 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


263 


Nevertheless  he  was  not  blind  to  what  would,  and  must 
be,  the  course  of  things  after  his  death.  This  is  certain: 
on  frequent  occasions  he  said — “ the  people  obey  me,  and 
will  do  so  while  I live ; but  they  will  not  obey  (Confer- 
ence ?)  after  I am  gone.”  What,  then,  we  may  fairly  ask 
— what  was  Wesley’s  expectation,  when  he  allowed  him 
self — and  surely  he  must  have  done  so — to  forecast  the 
future  ? Can  we  imagine  that  a man  such  as  he  would  be 
content  to  go  to  the  grave  with  that  formula  of  intense 
egotism  upon  his  lips — after  me  the  Deluge ! Nothing  would 
be  more  dishonoring  to  his  memory  than  any  such  sup- 
position. Could  he  tranquilly  have  sunk  into  decrepi- 
tude, believing  that  a wide  anarchy  would  overthrow 
and  dissipate  the  work  of  his  life,  within  a few  years, 
or  even  months,  after  his  decease  ? this  must  not  be  be- 
lieved. 

Yet  he  foresaw  that  the  “ people  called  Methodists,” 
would,  as  soon  as  he  was  well  gone,  resent  and  resist  the 
irresponsible  government  of  a self-electing  corporation 
of  ministers.  He  knew  that  the  anomalous  constitution 
which  he  had  legalized,  as  well  as  put  in  action,  was  of  a 
sort  which  could  not  be  made  to  work  on  its  own  forces. 
What  then  was  to  happen  ? Would  he  complacently  rec- 
oncile himself  to  the  thought  that  “Conference,”  adhering 
to  the  letter  of  this  constitution,  and  actuated  by  those 
powerful  motives,  so  deep-seated  in  human  nature,  which 
have  always  impelled  the  holders  of  absolute  power  to 
hold  it  on,  at  all  risks — that  his  successors,  thus  influenced, 
and  thus  acting,  would  go  on  to  defend  and  maintain  their 
supremacy  against  the  impetus  of  popular  feeling ; and 
that  they  would  be  able,  in  fact,  to  hold  out  in  their  cita- 
del through  successive  seasons  of  turbulence  and  agitation. 
A forecasting  of  events,  such  as  this,  should  be  reluctantly 
entertained,  for  it  does  not  well  consist  with  Wesley’s 
claim  upon  our  reverence,  as  a wise  and  simple-hearted 
Christian  ruler. 

There  is  one  other  supposition  for  which  there  may  be 
room,  and  which  saves  his  reputation  in  this  respect ; al- 


264 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


though  events  have  not  been  such  as  to  bear  it  out,  or 
make  it  appear  worthy  of  a mind  so  highly  gifted. 

Wesley — let  us  for  a moment  imagine  it,  might  thus 
have  forecast  the  history  of  his  people,  and  he  might  have 
said : — “ I have  had  to  do  with  babes ; but  these  infants 
are  becoming,  and  will  become,  men : then,  as  Christian 
men,  they  will  acquire  at  once  a mature  discretion,  and  the 
consciousness  of  it.  To  treat  them  in  perpetuity,  as  chil- 
dren, will  be  not  merely  unwise,  but  wholly  impracticable. 
My  successors — the  legal  Conference  Hundred,  will  not 
fail  to  know  and  feel  this : they  will  understand — and  will 
understand  in  good  time,  or  before  it  be  too  late,  that,  as 
they  do  not  wield  the  secular  arm  or  sword,  and  as  they 
stand  in  fact  upon  the  ground  of  a voluntary  association, 
their  common  interests,  their  duty  as  Christian  men,  as 
well  as  every  motive  of  prudence  and  piety,  will  prompt 
them,  at  an  early  time  after  my  decease,  to  invite  the 
people,  by  their  delegates,  or  otherwise,  to  consider,  and 
to  reconsider  the  Wesleyan  Constitution — to  form  it  anew 
by  mutual  concessions,  made  in  the  spirit  of  love,  upon  a 
broader  basis ; and,  in  a word,  they  will,  no  doubt,  find 
the  means  of  safely  transmuting  this  temporary  Wesleyan 
Methodism  into  a Protestant  Communion,  or  Church.  My 
preachers  will  doubtless  take  this  course  ; and  certainly 
they  will  take  it  rather  than  risk  their  own  existence,  and 
the  perpetuity  of  the  Society  itself,  by  a pertinacious  adher- 
ence to  that  which  has  so  little  congruity,  either  with  human 
nature,  or  with  the  temper  and  usages  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  or  with  the  principles  of  Apostolic  Christianity.’’ 

Let  it  be  imagined  and  believed  that  Wesley  thus 
thought,  and  that  he  died  with  this,  perhaps,  undefined 
prospect  before  his  eyes.  How  far,  or  whether  in  a timely 
and  effective  manner,  or  otherwise,  the  concessions  that 
have  been  made  by  Conference  to  the  people — the  Wes- 
leyan laity,  from  time  to  time,  have  filled  out  the  measure 
of  reasonable  popular  demands,  we  do  not  affect  to  know, 
nor  are  called  upon  to  inquire  or  consider. 

If  Wesleyan  Methodism  be  regarded — and  it  is  in  this 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


265 


Tight  alone  that,  in  these  pages,  it  is  regarded,  as  an  in- 
stance, unparalleled — as  to  the  breadth  and  the  success  of 
the  experiment,  available  for  the  guidance  of  those  who 
make  ecclesiastical  polity  the  subject  of  their  thoughts,  and 
who  would  reduce  it  to  a scientific  form,  then,  and  before 
any  inference  should  be  drawn  from  the  facts  it  presents, 
we  should  set  off  from  it,  when  inquiring  concerning  the 
causes  of  its  wide  and  rapid  spread,  the  impulse — incal- 
culable, which  it  received  at  its  commencement  from  that 
Methodism  out  of  which  it  sprung.  No  such  inchoative 
force  can  we  at  any  time  reckon  upon,  as  if  it  were  at  our 
command,  or  as  if  it  would  necessarily  be  evolved  from 
those  means  of  any  sort,  which  human  wisdom  and  zeal 
may  bring  into  operation.  As  part  and  parcel  of  the 
Methodistic  impulse,  giving  its  early  triumphant  course  to 
the  Wesleyan  movement,  must  be  reckoned  also,  that 
which  sprang  from  the  extraordinary  personal  influence 
of  Wesley  himself,  and  this  was  as  great  as  any  man, 
known  to  history,  has  ever  exerted. 

These  several  forces  reckoned  off,  so  far  as  such  an 
elimination  may  be  practicable,  then  what  we  have  before 
us  in  Wesleyanism — is  an  instance,  more  conclusive  and 
more  ample  than  any  elsewhere  found,  of  what  may  be 
done  by  aid  of  organization,  whether  the  actual  structure 
within  which  it  takes  place  be  the  best  possible,  or  not. 
In  following  this  scheme  into  its  details  (and  not  now  to 
refer  to  the  absolute  principle  on  which  it  rests)  there  may 
seem  room  for  better  adjustments  in  various  instances ; 
but,  better  or  worse,  this  thorough  organization,  what  will 
it  not  effect?  Had  the  Wesleyan  Institute,  from  the  first, 
embraced  those  elements  of  Christian  combination  which 
in  fact  it  overlooked  and  rejected,  it  may  seem  a not 
chimerical  supposition  that,  in  the  course  of  its  first  century, 
it  would  well-nigh  have  drawn  around  itself  the  Christiani- 
ty of  the  British  people.  Had  it  indeed  been  a Church, 
and  had  its  theology  been  large  and  tolerable,  the  sur- 
rounding Protestant  communions  might  all  have  undergone 
a process  of  absorption  into  itself. 

M 


266 


WESLEYAN  METHODISM, 


But  then,  if  it  be  so,  the  question  comes — Are  all  these 
complicated  movements — and  is  this  supplementary  inva- 
sion of  the  social  system,  and  is  this  wheel  within  wheel, 
and  this  incessant  whirl  of  the  religious  power-loom,  and 
this  interaction,  and  this  counteraction  of  authorities,  and 
this  anxious  balancing  of  forces — is  this  over-organized 
Christianity  abstractedly  good  ; or  does  it  not  actually  pro- 
duce, as  one  would  be  inclined  to  suppose,  a mechanical 
pietism?  or  even  if  not,  is  it  necessary?  Might  not  the 
entire  benefits  of  social  Christianity  be  secured,  at  a 
cheaper  rate  ? or,  more  properly  speaking,  might  not  the 
same  advantages  be  obtained  in  a mode  that  is  less  con- 
ventional, less  arbitrary,  less  formal,  and  in  a style  more 
in  harmony  with  that  unobtrusive  and  genial  domestic 
habit  and  temper  which,  in  a peculiar  manner,  is  the  char- 
acteristic of  the  English  mind,  when  best  ordered  and  best 
cultured  ? 

If  an  answer,  in  a summary  style,  were  demanded  to 
this  previous  question,  it  might  safely  be  given  in  the  form 
of  a peremptory  negative.  Wesleyan  hyper-organization, 
whatever  good  may  have  sprung  from  it,  or  may  yet 
spring  from  it,  is  not  necessary  to  the  full  development  of 
the  energies  of  the  Gospel.  Further  than  this  we  go,  and 
say,  that,  when  the  genuine  and  intrinsic  forces  of  Chris- 
tianity shall  be  brought  to  bear — in  conformity  wdth  Apos- 
tolic Church  principles,  upon  the  social  system,  and,  when 
the  ample  import  of  “salvation  in  Christ’^  shall  be  carried 
home  from  churches  to  families,  no  such  artificial  and  com- 
plicated mechanism  as  that  of  Wesleyanism  will  have  any 
place  left  it,  or  will  be  called  for. 

And  besides,  Wesleyan  Methodism,  rapidly  and  widely 
as  it  has  spread,  has  drawn  a limit  around  itself  which 
though,  at  the  first,  it  might  be  nothing  more  than  a chalk 
mark  upon  the  ground,  will  become  a barrier  impassable, 
when  Christianity  shall  work  itself  clear  of  all  similar  en- 
tanglements, as  undoubtedly  it  will. 

How  stands  the  case?  Wesleyan  Methodism,  as  a 
legally  recognized  establishment,  is  known  to  the  State, 


AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 


267 


and  is  protected  by  it,  in  this  manner : — Its  chapels  and 
other  chattels  are  held  in  trust,  for,  and  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  ‘‘  Conference  of  the  people  called  Method- 
ists f ' and  these  chapels  are  to  be  entered  upon,  used,  and 
enjoyed  by  the  members  of  that  corporation,  and  by  those, 
forever,  whom  they  may  appoint;  and  these  ministers, 
thus  entitled  to  use  the  property  of  which  the  trustees  are 
legally  seized,  are  themselves  bound  by  one  condition  only  ; 
but  it  is  a condition  which  was  ill-imagined  at  the  first, 
and  the  intolerable  oppression  of  which  must  be  sensibly 
enhanced  by  every  instance  of  progress  in  intelligence  and 
scriptural  understanding  that  may  be  going  on  around  it. 
The  Conference  Preachers  themselves,  and  those  whom 
they  appoint,  and  the  body  of  local  preachers,  are  to  teach 
that  doctrine,  “ and  no  other,”  which  is  set  forth  in  the  first 
four  volumes  of  the  Rev.  John  Wesley’s  Sermons,  and  in 
his  Notes  on  the  New  Testament ! It  is  the  part  and  duty 
of  Wesleyan  trustees  to  hold  the  preachers,  tightly,  to  the 
letter  of  some  dozen  volumes  of  heterogeneous  and  polem- 
ical theology ! undesirable  duty — impracticable  obligation ! 

But  we  return  to  the  preliminary  paragraph  of  this  sec- 
tion. We  have  said  that  the  constitution  of  visible  Chris- 
tianity, as  an  Institute  working  upon,  and  among,  other 
institutions,  and  so  as  not  to  forego  or  damage  its  own 
peculiar  and  anomalous  prerogatives,  offers  a problem  ot 
the  very  highest  difficulty — a problem  which  hitherto  has 
not  been  solved,  with  any  notable  success,  by  any  Church 
or  religious  community.  Thoughtful,  well-informed,  and 
ingenuous  Christian  men  perfectly  know  this ; and  they 
acknowledge  it,  and  while  they  admit  it  as  a fact,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  Church  to  which  they  may  have  attached  them- 
selves, they  can  not  but  hear,  with  disapproval,  the  noisy 
exultations  in  which  interested  and  sectarian  speakers 
and  writers  indulge  themselves,  when  occasion  gives  pub- 
licity to  those  abuses  or  embarrassments  that  are  incident, 
peculiarly,  to  this  or  that  Christian  body.  Quite  of  an- 
other sort  are  the  feelings  indulged  by,  and  the  reflections 
excited  in,  better  ordered  minds  on  such  occasions. 


268  WESLEYAN  METHODISM,  AN  ESTABLISHMENT. 

As  to  Wesleyan  Methodism,  in  its  actual  relationship, 
on  the  one  hand  to  the  masses  of  the  people,  and  on  the 
other  to  surrounding  religious  communions,  and  to  the 
Established  Church,  such  minds — oi',  let  us  say,  large- 
hearted  Christian  men,  accustomed  to  weigh  the  wheat 
against  the  chaff,  would  fervently  rejoice  to  see  Wesleyan 
Methodism  righting  itself  internally  ; — that  is  to  say,  find- 
ing, and  availing  itself  of,  some  happy  expedients  by  aid 
which  it  should  surmount  or  remove  its  structural  difficul- 
ties, and  should  return  in  power  to  its  original  place,  and 
its  proper  function,  among  other  bodies,  as  the  foremost 
evangelizing  force,  brought  to  bear  anew,  and  in  the  spirit 
of  its  illustrious  Founder,  upon  the  impiety  of  the  millions 
around  us. 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


We  leave  Wesleyanism,  and  return  for  a moment  to 
Methodism. 

Concerning  the  Methodism  of  the  last  century,  we  have 
assumed  that  it  was  indeed  a dispensation  from  Heaven. 
But  when  it  is  thus  considered,  this  inference  is  involved, 
namely,  that  this  recent  renovation  of  the  powers  of  the 
Gospel  must  stand  related,  as  well  to  the  future  as  to  the 
past : in  other  words,  that  it  must  be  held  to  take  a posi- 
tion in  that  series  of  events,  through  the  medium  of  which 
Christianity  has,  from  the  apostolic  age  onward,  continued 
to  work  its  way  forward  toward  its  destined  issue — the 
subjugation  of  the  human  family,  and  the  universality  of  a 
pure  religion. 

Inscrutable  always  are  the  reasons  of  the  Divine  Gov- 
ernment ; nevertheless,  the  evidences  of  the  fact  of  such 
a scheme  of  government,  having  its  marked  stages,  and 
its  sequences,  linking  each  conspicuous  period  of  religious 
revival  with  the  one  preceding  it,  and  then  with  the  next 
— the  evidences,  we  say,  of  such  an  ordered  sequence  of 
events  force  themselves  upon  the  notice  of  the  meditative 
reader  of  (what  is  called)  Church  history.  Yet,  although 
illustrations  of  this  alleged  causal  connection  of  events 
might  easily  be  adduced,  yet  to  carry  them  clear  of  all 
plausible  exceptions,  and  to  construct,  by  means  of  them, 
a well-compacted  and  impregnable  argument,  would  be 
difficult.  So  arduous  a task,  who  shall  attempt  it? 

A purpose  far  less  venturous  we  have  now  before  us, 
and,  therefore,  we  shut  off  from  our  view  that  wider  pros- 
pect which  would  claim  to  be  contemplated  if  the  intention 
were — to  bring  Methodism  to  its  place  in  the  general  his- 
tory of  Christianity. 


270 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


It  must  suffice  here  to  say,  that,  if  the  wide-spread  re- 
vival of  evangelic  piety  which  followed  the  itinerant  min- 
istry of  Whitefield,  and  Wesley,  and  their  companions, 
be  regarded  as  “from  Heaven”  (and  this  belief  will,  at 
this  time,  be  rejected  by  few  religiously-minded  persons) 
and,  if  this  Methodism  be  thought  of,  as  it  should,  as  a fol- 
lowing up  of  that  recovery  of  true  theology  and  of  a pure 
worship,  which  it  was  the  work  of  the  Reformation  to 
bring  about,  then  will  it  be  inevitable,  or  it  will  come 
upon  us  as  an  irresistible  impulse,  to  look  onward  from  the 
now  extinct  Methodism,  to  its  destined  sequence,  or  to  that 
which  we  have  here  ventured  to  designate,  beforehand,  as 
the  Methodism  of  the  coming  time.  If  the  hand  of  God 
should  be  acknowledged  in  that  work  which  Whitefield 
and  Wesley  effected,  can  we  think  that  that  hand  has  been 
withdrawn  from  the  sphere  of  human  affairs  ? or  are  those 
high  purposes  which  then  were  moved  forward,  rescinded 
or  broken?  Shall  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, and  the  Methodism  of  the  eighteenth,  and  the  mis- 
sionary impulse  which  followed  hard  upon  it,  shall  these 
movements  onward  toward  an  issue  proportionate,  shall 
they  stop  short,  and  be  looked  back  upon,  ages  hence,  as 
a dawn  that  was  followed  by  no  day? 

We  otherwise  think.  But  even  if  Christian  men  migh^> 
incline  to  abstain  from  all  forecastings  of  the  future,  they 
would  not  be  suffered,  in  quietness,  so  to  do,  by  those  on 
every  side,  who,  adducing  in  triumphant  tones,  and  with 
apparent  reason,  as  the  grounds  of  their  anticipations,  the 
actual  and  indisputable  course  of  events,  and  the  tenden- 
cies of  opinion  in  the  educated  classes  throughout  the 
civilized  world,  are  challenging  the  Christian  community 
to  look  well  to  that  which  is  coming,  and  to  interpret,  as 
they  do,  the  signs  of  the  times.  We  may  not  then,  even 
if  we  would,  refuse  to  consider  that  which  is  impending 
in  the  times  that  are  now  next  us,  and  near  at  hand. 

The  Romanist — naming  him,  for  convenience  sake,  as 
the  truest  representative  of  all  who,  Romanists  or  not,  hold 
substantially  the  same  principles — the  Romanist  believes, 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


271 


and  in  so  believing  he  is  justified  by  a great  amount  and 
variety  of  evidence,  that  the  religious  instinct  of  mankind, 
so  far  as  it  assumes  the  form  of  a definite  creed,  and  so 
far  as  it  conforms  itself  to  an  external  worship,  is  now  fast 
gathering  itself  around  the  one  visible  source  of  authentic 
belief,  and  which  is  also  the  centre  of  spiritual  govern- 
ment, and  which  enjoins  the  one  form  of  worship  accept- 
able to  Heaven.  The  Romanist  believes — and  this  his 
persuasion  has,  at  least,  its  semblance  of  reason,  that,  yet 
a little  while,  and  the  eyes  of  all  men  shall  be  seen  to  turn 
toward  the  chair  of  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles ; at  least, 
so  it  shall  be  with  all  who  profess  any  sort  of  dogmatic 
faith,  and  who  adhere  to  the  usages  of  a visible  worship. 
This  belief,  recommended  as  it  is  by  its  simplicity  of  ex- 
pression, is  strong  also  on  the  ground  of  its  antiquity,  and 
of  its  wide  diffusion,  and  of  the  apparent  tendency  of  de- 
vout minds. 

On  the  other  side,  again  for  convenience  sake,  and  for 
brevity,  we  name  the  Pantheist  of  the  present  time  as  the 
representative  of  that  various  mass  of  undefined  opinion 
which  has  existed  always  as  the  counter-belief,  though 
not  the  real  antagonist,  of  Romanism.  It  is  this  Panthe- 
ism and  this  Romanism  which,  from  the  earliest  periods 
known  to  history,  have,  under  different  names,  shared  be- 
tween them,  in  shifting  formas,  the  empire  of  the  human 
family;  the  one  shaping  itself  always  in  counter-conform- 
ity to  the  other  ; and  the  two,  like  binary  celestial  masses, 
revolving  round  a common  centre,  are^  found  to  be  neces- 
sary, the  one  to  the  other : — annihilate  either,  and  the 
other  would  fly  off  from  its  orbit,  and  be  lost  in  infinite 
space.  Each,  silently  conscious  of  its  dependent  relation- 
ship to  the  other,  has  been  tolerant  of  the  other ; and  thus 
it  is  that,  while  Romanism,  under  cover  of  mysticism, 
reserves  a place  for  Pantheism,  Pantheism  has  been  used 
to  say,  and  is  now  saying  aloud,  “ Inasmuch  as  the  mass 
of  mankind — the  herd,  high  and  low,  must  and  will  have 
a dogmatic  belief  of  some  sort,  and  must  have  an  ostenta- 
tious worship,  Romanism  supplies  both  in  a mode  that  is 


272 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


well  adapted  to  satisfy  the  instincts,  and  to  meet  the  prejiv 
dices  of  the  unthinking  many.’’ 

But  the  Pantheist,  resting  his  calculations  of  the  future 
at  this  time,  upon  the  observed  tendencies  of  modern  sci- 
ence, in  all  its  branches  and  amid  its  amazing  develop- 
ments, of  late,  and  seeing  also  toward  what  end  social  and 
political  institutions  are  moving,  announces  it  as  a fact, 
well-nigh  accomplished,  or  as  now  evolving  itself  rapidly, 
that  the  entire  body  of  instructed  and  intelligent  men, 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  and  leaving,  by  peaceable 
connivance,  the  Romanist  to  take  to  its  bosom  the  unin- 
structed and  the  unintelligent — that  this  thinking  class  is 
now  preparing  itself  for  its  near  approaching  time  of  tri- 
umph— its  millennium — when  it  may  ingenuously  profess 
its  rejection  of  every  dogma,  and  its  independence  of 
every  authority  in  matters  of  thought,  and  its  tranquil 
contempt  of  all  forms  of  worship  alike.  The  Pantheist, 
in  support  of  this,  his  confident  anticipation,  appeals  to  the 
admitted  fact  that,  already  all,  or  nearly  all,  educated  men, 
from  end  to  end  of  Continental  Europe,  those  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  alone  excepted,  if  they  have  not  yet  declared 
themselves  on  his  side,  are  held  back  from  doing  so  only 
by  motives  of  conventional  propriety,  or  of  policy. 

Now  the  question  between  the  Romanist,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  Pantheist,  on  the  other,  and  those  who  hold 
to  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  on  the  third  part,  would  not 
relate  to  the  fact,  which  is  obvious  and  notorious,  of  the 
present  prevalence  of  both  Romanism  and  Pantheism,  or 
of  the  probable  future  triumph  of  both  ; but  only  as  to  the 
extent,  or  the  amount,  and  the  value  of  that  exception, 
which  both  must  admit  to  exist — namely,  the  firmly-held 
Christian  belief  of  multitudes  within  the  circle  of  Protest- 
antism. The  overweening  feeling  of  the  Romanist  im- 
pels him,  indeed,  to  set  down,  as  of  little  account,  Protest- 
antism, in  its  several  forms  ; — he  swells  and  boasts  himself 
too  much.  The  Pantheist,  ever  vague  in  his  mode  of 
thinking,  and  prone  to  beguile  himself  among  baseless 
speculations,  apart  from  evidence,  and  regardless  of  facts, 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


273 


professes  not  to  know,  or  knowing,  not  to  care,  whether, 
at  this  moment,  the  Christian  exception,  or  “remnant 
of  faith,”  be  larger  or  smaller : the  world,  or  the  world 
of  mind,  is,  or  it  will  speedily  become,  his  own  undis- 
puted property,  and  he  can  be  patient  a few  days  or 
years,  until  that  which  is  inevitable  has  actually  come 
about. 

Rather  than  enter  upon  an  ambiguous  controversy,  as  to 
facts  which  in  themselves  are  not  to  be  precisely  defined, 
or  ascertained,  as  between  himself  and  the  Romanist,  or 
the  Pantheist,  the  Christian,  or  he  who  holds  to  articles  of 
belief,  as  authentically  taught  in  Holy  Scripture,  and  to  a 
worship  thence  gathered,  will  do  well  (for  himself,  and  as 
a means  of  reaching  a tranquil  position)  to  grant,  for  an 
hour  at  least,  to  both  his  antagonists,  that  the  facts  are  as 
they  severally  profess  them  to  be,  and  that  the  anticipa- 
tions which  spring  from  these  facts  are  not  chimerical. 
Let  it  be  so  then,  that  our  prospect  of  the  future — the  im- 
mediate future — is  to  be  constituted  by  blending,  in  some 
manner,  the  predictions  of  the  Romanist  with  those  of  the 
Pantheist ! This  prospect,  then,  is  that  which  we  have  to 
do  with.  Of  what  interpretation  is  it  susceptible  ? This 
is  our  question. 

Many  of  those  who  are  on  the  side  of  Christian  faith, 
will  loudly  protest  against  any  such  admission  as  this, 
even  though  it  be  introduced  only  in  a hypothetic  form ; 
for  they  will  peremptorily  deny  that  it  rests  upon  any  solid 
grounds ; and,  in  contradiction  and  refutation  of  it,  they 
will  make  an  appeal  triumphantly  to  facts  of  a very  differ-^ 
ent  order,  indicating  and  proving,  beyond  doubt,  the  actual 
hold  which  Christian  truth  has  secured  for  itself  in  the 
world,  and  the  constantly  augmenting  efficacy  of  its  prin- 
ciples, as  “ mighty,  through  God,  for  casting  down  imagin- 
ations,” and  for  bringing  into  captivity  every  thing  that 
opposes  its  beneficent  influence. 

All  this  we  do  not  deny,  nor  would  we  abate  any  thing  of 
the  warmth  of  that  persuasion  which  impels  Christian-heart- 
ed men  to  anticipate,  as  near,  an  order  of  events  the  very 


274 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


reverse  of  that  to  which  we  have  here  given  a conjectural 
place. 

Be  it  so.  Still  we  return  to  those  facts,  on  the  other 
side,  that  are  not  to  be  denied,  namely,  that,  to  some  ex- 
tent, and  an  extent  unusual,  if  not  absolutely  unexampled, 
both  Romanism  and  a mystic  philosophy,  which  is  essen- 
tially pantheistic,  are  winning  the  favor,  and  are  securing 
for  themselves  the  adherence  of  multitudes  around  us  ; 
and  that  thus  they  are  making  their  advances,  as  well  in 
the  upper,  as  in  the  lower  classes  of  the  community.  So 
much  as  this  is  not  disputable  ; for  the  facts  obtrude  them- 
selves upon  us  every  day,  and  are  seen  in  all  societies ; 
and  they  are  admitted  and  reported  in  tones,  either  of  un- 
easiness and  alarm,  or  of  triumph. 

What  is  it  then,  that  is  indeed  going  on,  and  of  what  sort 
is  that  preparation  which,  by  such  means  as  these,  is  now 
in  progress,  for  bringing  about  that  which  we  here  assume 
to  be  “ at  the  doors,”  or  not  indefinitely  remote ; namely, 
a time  of  renovation  and  refreshment,  and  which,  by  ac- 
commodation, we  have  ventured  to  speak  of  as  the  Meth- 
odism OF  THE  TIME  COMING  ? 

To  answer  this  question  in  a word,  we  say,  that,  by 
these  very  means — by  the  aid  of  Romanism  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  Pantheism  on  the  other — the  Christianity  of 
the  apostolic  writings  is  throwing  off,  and  is  getting  itself 
clear  of,  every  thing  which  hitherto,  through  the  medium 
of  a difiused  profession,  and  of  a conventional  religiousness, 
it  has  come  to  be  entangled  with,  but  which  is  not  its  own, 
^and  with  which  it  has  no  true  alliance.  Christianity  is,  as 
we  believe,  shaking  off  from  its  surface  the  encrustations 
of  recent  times  : it  is  parting  company  with  the  multitude 
that  of  late  has  pressed  about  it,  and  thronged  it,  and  is 
drawing  itself  off  to  the  desert,  for  converse  with  those 
who  are  not  offended  with  it,  as  it  is. 

Well  fitted  are  these  two  agents  for  the  purpose  they 
are  subserving : fitted  for  it  they  are,  separately  and  con- 
jointly. It  is  the  Romanist,  and  none  so  well  as  he,  who 
can  draw  off  from  the  wide  field  of  English  Christian  pro- 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


275 


fession  the  many,  whether  rude  or  refined,  that  have 
listlessly  trodden  its  inclosures.  It  is  the  Pantheist  of  this 
time,  who  has  just  now  learned  how  to  take  into  his  use 
the  language  of  a spiritualism  which  he  has  borrowed  (as 
to  its  dialect)  from  the  Scriptures,  it  is  he,  and  none  so 
well  as  he,  who  can  beckon  away  from  all  Christian  con- 
gregations, one  by  one,  the  youth,  the  intelligence,  the  am- 
bitious and  the  stirring  thoughtfulness  they  may  contain. 

A customary,  and  now,  perhaps,  an  exhausted  topic, 
with  Protestant  writers  (and  a very  legitimate  ground  of 
argument  doubtless)  has  been  the  adaptation  of  Romanism 
— or,  if  we  were  to  use  more  comprehensive  phrases,  we 
should  say — sensuous  Ritualism,  to  engage  and  charm 
imaginative,  sensitive,  and  meditative  minds ; not  now  to 
speak  of  its  all-prevailing  influence  with  the  thoughtless 
multitude,  as  a gross  superstition  and  a polytheistic  appar- 
atus. This  Ritualism,  in  a word — and  if  we  now  think  of 
it  only  in  its  more  refined  form,  such  as  it  assumes  v*^hen 
it  has  to  recommend  itself  to  the  notions  and  habits  of  a 
Protestant  country — it  is  this  Ritualism,  with  its  attendant 
mysticism,  which  offers  to  devoutly-disposed  and  cultured 
minds  that  which  the  craving  of  such  most  earnestly  seeks 
for,  namely,  a subjective  religion,  all  the  elements  of  which 
are  found  within  the  circle  of  human  nature  itself,  and  are 
always  at  its  command,  independently  of  that  grace  and 
illumination  which  is  felt  to  be,  not  from  itself,  nor  at  its 
command,  but  which  must  be  looked  for,  and  obtained, 
from  above.  The  devoutly-disposed  mind  must  have  its 
religion ; and  it  may  have  it  at  first  hand,  by  the  aid  of  a 
worship  like  that  of  Romanism. 

Ritualism,  subjectively  considered,  is  the  soufs  own 
product ; and  it  is  therefore  clung  to,  and  rested  in,  with  a 
deep-felt  complacency.  Some  of  the  purest  minds  have 
been  content  to  stop  short  in  this  homogeneous  and  wild 
growth  of  human  nature.  Then,  according  to  the  tem- 
perament of  individuals,  it  readily  coalesces,  on  the  one 
hand,  with  the  themes  of  a lofty  and  abstruse  meditation, 
or  on  the  other,  and  in  minds  of  a more  vulgar  cast,  with 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


.V76 

polytheistic  admixtures,  and  with  the  semi-sensual  gratifi- 
cations that  are  supplied  by  music,  painting,  architecture, 
and  the  various  branches  of  the  decorative  arts.  It  is  in 
this  endless  variety  of  combination  that  we  now,  and  in 
every  circle,  meet  with  the  ecclesiastical  artistic  feeling, 
so  worked  up  with  the  devout,  that  much  more  than  an 
ordinary  skill  is  required  in  those  who  would  attempt  to 
separate  these  ingredients.  A time  ago,  which  some  of 
us  remember,  the  tastes  of  the  same  class  of  minds  among 
the  opulent,  sought  their  gratification  in  what  might  be 
called  the  sublime  in  upholstery,  and  in  the  cognate  de- 
vices of  the  arabesque  and  the  grotesque — ^carved,  sculp- 
tured, or  painted.  We  have  now  the  symbolic  for  the 
grotesque;  we  have  saints  in  the  place  of  satyrs,  cherubs 
for  dolphins,  implements  of  martyrdom  for  the  parapher- 
nalia of  chivalry ; and  all  to  meet  the  whims,  and  to  ex- 
haust the  purses,  of  the  very  same  order  of  persons,  fired 
by  a new  enthusiasm,  or  an  enthusiasm  that  has  been 
newly  raked  out  of  the  deposits  of  the  middle  ages. 

But  there  is  something  much  deeper  than  this  in  the  now 
spreading  eagerness  of  the  Ritualistic  temper.  A mere 
fashion,  or  “ rage,”  as  it  is  called,  for  ecclesiastical  per- 
formances, and  for  the  sumptuous  accompaniments  of  such 
exhibitions,  would  wear  itself  out  in  a season  or  two  ; and 
that  which,  in  its  elements  and  its  impulses,  is  indeed  of  the 
world,  would  presently  sicken  of  the  gloom  and  chill  of 
churches,  and  would  return  to  its  proper  haunts — to 
saloons,  theatres,  galleries,  and  the  like.  The  now  preva- 
lent Ritualism  means  more  than  a fashion,  for  it  is  a deep 
working  impulse ; it  is  an  Infatuation.  What,  then,  do 
we  mean  by  this  word,  as  thus  applied  ? 

A perfectly  distinct  answer  to  this  question  it  is  not  easy 
to  give ; but  a sufficient  answer  may  be  supplied  by  the 
means  of  an  illustration,  more  or  less  exact  and  pertinent. 
One  enters,  let  us  suppose,  upon  some  infected  region,  over 
which  a miasma — not  to  be  seen,  or  felt,  or  to  be  shown 
and  proved  to  be  present  by  any  human  means — is  reign- 
ing, as  vicegerent  of  Death.  All  countenances  speak  of 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


277 


this  invisible  power,  and  man  and  beast  stoop  and  fade  be- 
fore it.  Though  unseen,  it  does  not  leave  the  casual  visitor 
to  doubt  the  reality  of  its  sway ; for  an  uneasiness  not  to 
be  shaken  off,  but  which  is  the  prognostic  of  worse,  warns 
him  to  retreat,  and  to  make  his  escape  while  he  may. 

If  we  turn  then  to  the  world  of  mind  and  opinion,  and 
ask  what  it  is  which  we  should  thus  speak  of  as  an  epide- 
mic infatuation,  we  answer,  it  is  an  influence  which  is  found 
to  be  spreading  from  mind  to  mind,  to  be  taking  to  itself 
families  and  districts,  to  be  enchaining  even  some  of  the 
intellectually  robust,  and  which,  nevertheless,  when  one 
would  apply  to  it  any  known  mode  of  rational  treatment, 
or  if  one  would  seek  to  submit  it,  in  the  form  of  propositions, 
to  logical  analysis — if  one  would  endeavor  to  confront  it 
with  evidence,  historical  or  biblical ; or,  in  a word,  to  deal 
with  it  on  any  principle  of  which  reason  is  cognizant  or 
which  authentic  piety  can  bow  to— this  impression — this 
inappreciable,  but  all  providing  feeling,  eludes  all  such 
means  of  detention : — while  one  grasps  it — it  is  gone.  As 
well  bring  argument  to  bear  upon  the  flashing  of  the  arctic 
Aurora,  as  upon  this  ruling  tendency  of  the  minds  around 
us. 

An  infatuation,  taking  a religious  form,  is  thus  seen  to 
draw  to  itself,  and  to  bind  in  its  threads,  first  the  young, 
the  amiable,  and  the  sensitive  among  women ; and  then 
the  sensitive,  and  the  less  masculine  among  men: — then 
follow  those  who,  worldly  as  they  may  be  in  habit  and 
temper,  must  have  a religion,  with  its  Sunday  observances  ; 
and  this  need  must  be  supplied  by  that  which  is  not  so  inane 
as  that  it  could  not  dissipate  ennui;  and  it  must  be  in  good 
repute,  and  must  be  easy  in  its  conditions.  By  aid  of  its 
ever  varying  recommendations,  ritual  Pietism  engages 
minds  that  are  very  differently  constituted  ; but,  in  so  en- 
gaging them,  it  wholly  abstracts  them  from  that  which  is 
strictly  Christian.  No  form  of  worldliness  or  frivolity  is 
more  absolutely  remote  from  the  Christianity  of  the  apos- 
tolic writings,  than  is  the  Ritualism,  which  now  draws  the 
crowd. 


278 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


Thus  it  is  then  on  this  side— the  religious  side — that 
Christianity  is,  by  the  means  of  the  Ritualistic  infatuation, 
setting  itself  clear  of  that  which  it  is  not  of  itself,  and  is 
retiring  to  a distance  beyond  the  broad  margin  of  that  re- 
ligiousness wherewith,  for  a while  past,  it  has  been  in- 
timately blended. 

A separation  of  another  sort  is,  however,  necessary  to 
complete  this  same  disjunctive  process.  The  Gospel 
must  wholly  cut  itself  off  from  the  fond  philosophy  of  the 
present  time  ; and  it  is  doing  so  by  the  aid  of  an  infatuation 
of  another,  and  of  a more  refined  species,  namely,  the 
philosophic  or  pantheistic.  So  long  as  science,  mathemat- 
ical and  physical,  stood  opposed  to  a species  of  faith  which 
itself  was  vague,  undogmatical,  and  tolerant  of  all  differ- 
ences, men  devoted  to  science,  and  who  themselves  had 
no  religious  feeling,  found  it  easy  to  allow,  or  to  connive 
at,  a religion  that  never  obtruded  itself,  and  that  gave  no 
one  any  annoyance.  But  in  times  such  as  these,  when  a 
very  decisive  orthodoxy  has  taken  the  place  of  the  tooth- 
less Christianity  of  the  last  century,  and  when  the  only 
alternative  presenting  itself  to  the  choice  of  educated  men 
is,  either  to  yield  assent  to  a creed  peremptory  in  every 
clause  or  to  reject  Christianity  altogether — at  such  a time, 
a reaction  inevitably  takes  place,  and  in  its  course  it  forces 
upon  the  non-religious  scientific  mind  a more  determinate 
form  of  unbelief  than  otherwise  it  would  have  chosen. 
Philosophic  non-religion  thus  becomes  articulate  infidelity : 
and  we  now  hear  it  uttering  itself  in  various  tones,  and 
propounding  philosophic  creeds,  all  of  them  resolving  them- 
selves into  a system  which,  in  substance,  is  Pantheism. 

This  Pantheism,  more  or  less  emotional  or  imaginative 
in  the  ingredients  with  which  it  combines,  is  at  present  the 
belief  of  many  of  the  best  constructed  minds  of  the  scientific 
class.  Nothing  else  can  well  be  looked  for  at  a time  when 
a formal  orthodoxy,  having  little  vitality,  and  which  clothes 
itself  in  the  costume  of  the  now  prevalent  Ritualism,  is  that 
which  educated  men  must  take  to  and  profess,  if  they  are 
to  become  religious  in  a Christian  sense: — while  it  is  so, 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


279 


Pantheism,  under  some  form,  will  be  the  religion  of  the 
great  majority  of  this  class.  It  is  scarcely  possible  that 
any  other  species  of  antagonism  than  this  should  obtain  in 
a community  within  which  a severe  and  exact  philosophy 
— abstract  and  inductive,  holds  its  ground,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  on  the  other  a dogmatic  belief  is  professed  and  pro- 
nounced with  unwonted  animation,  and  in  alliance,  too,  with 
so  much  of  formality  in  worship. 

Then  this  same  pantheism  which  is  silently,  and  one 
might  say  defensively^  rather  than  obtrusively,  held  by 
scientific  and  well  disciplined  minds,  dilutes  itself  in  de- 
scending among  those  of  inferior  quality ; and,  as  thus 
brought  down,  it  is  now  pouring  itself  forth  from  the  press, 
in  styles  adapted  to  all  tastes  ; — sometimes  elaborately 
spiritualized,  sometimes  in  forms  that  are  rich  and  imagin- 
ative ; often  as  allied  to  some  species  of  pseudo^ scientific 
quackery;  and  very  often  in  combination  with  political 
fanaticism,  such  as  that  of  Socialism.  So  it  is,  that  if  the 
higher  or  more  abstruse  philosophy  is  too  strong  for  you, 
you  may  be  served  with  the  same  drug,  dilute  in  a deluge 
of  vapidity. 

We  have  said  that  these  two  discriminative  agents. 
Ritualism  and  Pantheism,  w’hich  are  so  effectively  sub- 
serving their  destined  purpose  of  ridding  Christianity  of 
its  admixtures,  apart,  do  also  work  to  the  same  end  as 
related  the  one  to  the  other.  This  incidental  connection 
of  the  two  has  made  itself  conspicuous,  of  late,  in  some 
notable  instances.  Ritualism  retains  its  hold,  with  diffi- 
culty, of  active  and  progressive  minds : such  take  to  it  in 
a moment,  as  a solace,  or  a taste ; but  they  soon  weary 
themselves  in  and  with  it:  they  turn  aside  with  impa- 
tience from  a path  that,  as  they  find,  runs  an  endless  cir- 
cuit, and  brings  them  ever  and  again  round  to  the  same 
spot.  Ritualism,  therefore,  is  continually  losing  itself  or 
melting  away  into  Pantheism ; and  so  it  is  that  the  world 
is  often  challenged  to  listen  to  the  moanings  of  those  who, 
with  strong  religious  instincts  in  their  bosoms,  have  sick- 
ened of  “Cults,”  and  have  fallen  back,  disconsolate,  upon 


280 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


the  philosophy  which  they  had  already  once  rejected  as  a 
lifeless  abstraction ! Those  who  escape  the  meshes  of 
Ritualism  are  taken  up  by  that  net  the  property  of  which 
is  to  hold  whatever  it  touches. 

The  one  or  the  other  of  these  two  absorbing  influences, 
or  infatuations,  as  we  have  ventured  to  call  them,  is  now 
meeting  us  in  every  circle,  and  is  dividing  families ; and 
the  victims,  too  often,  are  the  well  trained — the  intelligent, 
the  amiable.  Those  whose  own  Christian  belief  is  deep 
and  immovable,  seeing  these  things,  are  filled  with  sorrow 
and  alarm,  or  even  dismay ; and  such  persons — parents 
often — look  around  for  help,  and  are  impelled  to  call 
loudly  upon  Christian  teachers  and  writers  to  come  for- 
ward with  dissuasives,  with  sermons,  tracts,  or  conversa- 
tions, such  as  shall  avail  to  stay  the  evil  in  its  course : but 
by  such  means  it  will  not,  in  many  instances  be  stayed. 
To  a limited  extent,  and  only  for  an  hour  or  a day,  does 
reasoning,  even  though  it  be  the  most  conclusive,  take 
effect  upon  those  who  have  once  surrendered  themselves 
to  either  of  these  fascinations,  each  of  which  finds  its  way, 
with  ease,  into  the  deepest  recesses  of  human  nature.  Al- 
ways is  it  possible  to  pass  from  the  domination  of  the  one 
influence,  and  to  come  under  the  sway  of  the  other ; and 
this  shifting  of  the  mastery  of  the  bosom  may,  as  it  seems, 
be  often  repeated ; or  otherwise,  relief  may  be  had  by  a 
surrender  of  the  soul  and  body  to  worldly  impulses,  and 
to  sensual  seductions.  Thus  may  a tyranny  which  is  in- 
tellectual be  shaken  off,  by  selling  the  body  and  soul  to  a 
tyranny  that  is  earthly. 

In  various  modes  are  these  spreading  illusions  of  the 
time  resisted  and  repelled  on  the  part  of  those  who  repre- 
sent and  profess  Biblical  Christianity.  Sometimes,  and 
not  seldom,  by  vehement  if  not  virulent  invectives ; or  if 
not  so,  by  the  angry  outbursts  of  an  undigested  zeal  which 
denounces  its  antagonist — Romanism  (“Popery”)  or  In- 
fidelity— in  language  that,  while  it  exhausts  the  vocabulary 
of  contemptuous  wrath,  falls  like  the  clatter  of  hail  upon  a 
slated  roof.  How  little  is  this  loud  barking  at  the  gate 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


281 


heeded  by  the  wily  fox  who  has  already  entered,  from  be- 
hind, the  inclosure,  where  he  has  found  what  he  was  in 
search  of,  and  is  glutted  with  his  prey ! 

Men  of  a more  governed  temper,  and  of  better  train- 
ing, employ  themselves  in  their  studies  commendably, 
and,  perhaps,  usefully,  in  redressing  the  staple  argument, 
or  the  round  of  arguments,  long  ago  admitted  to  be  con- 
clusive, and  which,  in  fact,  stand  unrefuted,  and  by  means 
of  which  it  may  be  shown,  entirely  to  the  satisfaction  of 
all  dispassionate  and  reason-loving  persons— that  the 
pretensions  of  Rome  are  utterly  unfounded — that  its  dis- 
tinguishing doctrines  and  rites  are  innovations,  the  rise 
and  history  of  which  are  no  way  obscure,  and  that  the 
entire  system  is  as  corrupt  and  cruel  as  it  is  anti-christian ; 
or,  turning  toward  our  adversary  on  the  left  hand,  argu- 
ments that  are  good  and  sufficient,  and  more  than  suffi- 
cient, may  be  brought  to  bear,  as  well  upon  Christianity, 
to  authenticate  its  claims,  as  upon  Pantheism,  to  expose 
the  inconclusiveness  of  its  reasonings,  and  to  show  the 
vague  and  nugatory  character  of  its  speculations. 

Now  these  several  modes  of  tranquil  argumentation  can 
not  be  thought  to  have  lost  any  of  their  intrinsic  value ; 
and  therefore,  they  may  well  be  set  out  afresh,  from  year 
to  year,  as  valid  and  impregnable  defenses.  This  advo- 
cacy of  the  truth  does,  in  fact,  avail  with  those  who  might, 
perhaps,  have  been  retained  within  the  inclosures  of  Chris- 
tian belief  without  its  aid,  or  by  the  use  of  other  means  of 
suasion.  But  as  to  those  whose  lips  have  but  once  touch- 
ed Circe’s  cup,  the  authentic  argument  which  is  custom- 
arily employed  in  defense  of  Biblical  Christianity,  as 
against  either  Romanism  or  Atheism,  takes  effect  in  in- 
stances that  are  as  rare  as  the  rarest  of  natural  phenomena. 
We  feel — or  those  feel  it  who  thus  labor  to  stay  the 
spreading  evil — that  what  we  have  to  do  with  is  not  an 
error  that  may  be  corrected,  but  an  infatuation,  out-lying 
far  beyond  the  range  of  reason. 

The  experience,  or  the  mortifying  consciousness  of  this 
impotency  of  argument  to  drive  back  the  silent  encroach- 


282 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


ments  of  the  two  great  delusions  of  these  times,  has  led, 
on  the  part  (chiefly)  of  young,  ardent,  and  ambitious 
writers  and  preachers,  to  an  attempt  the  most  unwise,  the 
actual  product  of  which  has  been  only  to  re-act  upon  their 
own  minds,  and  to  loosen  their  hold  of  their  professed 
principles,  as  well  as  to  enfeeble  their  influence  as  reli- 
gious teachers.  Such  preachers  and  writers  have  said — 
or  it  appears  that  they  must  so  have  reasoned  with  them- 
selves— “We  find  that  our  Christian  argument  takes  little 
effect  upon  the  mass  of  men ; and  none  at  all  upon  those 
who,  in  an  active  sense,  stand  opposed  to  us.  Nor  ought 
we  much  to  wonder  that  it  should  be  so,  for  this  style  of 
reasoning,  which  had  its  rise  in  dark  times,  stands  in  no 
true  relationship  toward  the  human  mind  in  its  present 
advanced  condition  ; it  is  thoroughly  obsolete  ; nor  ought 
it  to  be  required  of  the  educated  men  of  these  enlightened 
times  to  listen  to  that  which  is  so  stale.  Besides,  not  only 
are  the  arguments  we  have  been  using  out  of  date,  but  the 
Christianity  which  we  have  inherited  from  our  ancestors 
(good  men  indeed  !)  is  itself  superannuated.  The  Gospel 
has  been  misunderstood,  as  every  thing  else  came  to  be 
misunderstood,  during  the  middle  ages.  Then  the  theo- 
logy that  was  unadvisedly  compacted  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  was  a conglomerate  of  logical,  metaphysical, 
polemical,  and  political  truths  and  errors — an  inextricably 
entangled  mass.  The  work,  therefore,  that  is  now  to  be 
done,  and  which  is  to  be  done  by  us,  the  rising  ministry, 
is  (with  all  due  reverence  for  the  text  of  Holy  Scripture) 
to  reconsider  every  thing — to  pass  our  creeds  through  the 
refining  fires  of  the  modern  philosophy — to  render  the 
substance  of  theology  into  the  intelligible  terms  of  the  mod- 
ern philosophy  ; — in  a word,  what  we  have  to  do  is,  to  put 
forth  for  the  acceptance  of  the  enlightened  times  on  which 
we  have  fallen — a Philosophy  of  Salvation.  To  encourage 
our  endeavors  on  this  ground,  we  may  assume  it  as  cer- 
tain, that  there  is  nothing  in  Christianity,  when  truly  un- 
derstood, which  may  not  be  made  perfectly  intelligible  to 
all  reasonable  men.  Mystery  is  a phantom  of  times  gone 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


283 


by ; — it  was  itself  born  of  superstition,  and  it  becomes  the 
parent  of  more.  We  will  show  men  that  their  prejudices 
against  Christianity  have  all  been  founded  upon  misappre- 
hensions, the  blame  of  which  rests  upon  ourselves  and  our 
predecessors  more  than  upon  those  who  entertain  them.” 

Thus,  in  substance,  have  some  reasoned  with  them- 
selves, and  on  such  grounds  have  they  addressed  them- 
selves to  the  labor — a labor  how  vain! — of  engineering 
a road,  upon  an  easy  slope,  up  the  steeps  of  Paradise, 
from  the  levels  of  Disbelief ; and  so  that  the  table  land 
of  Heaven  may  henceforth  be  laid  open  to  the  feet  of  all 
men. 

While  time  and  toil  are  thus,  or  in  similar  enterprises, 
expended  to  little  purpose — that  is  to  say,  in  relation  to 
the  middle  classes,  and  to  those  who  frequent  churches 
and  chapels — to  arrest  the  spread  of  dangerous  opinions, 
it  is  found,  it  is  felt,  it  is  confessed,  on  all  sides,  that  Chris- 
tianity has  nearly  lost  its  hold  of  the  masses  around  us ; 
or  that  if  nothing  has  been  lost,  because  never  possessed, 
little  or  nothing  has  lately  been  gained  on  the  broad  field 
of  the  popular  mind.  It  is  true  that  a proportion  of  the 
laboring  classes,  in  towns,  and  through  the  country,  is 
still  held  in  hand  by  each  of  the  Protestant  communions, 
and  which,  with  its  score  or  two,  fills,  as  one  might  say, 
the  interstices  of  congregations;  or — to  use  a phrase 
which  in  itself  is  of  ill  sound — there  are,  in  all  places  of 
worship,  there  are  occupants  of  the  “ free  sittings — 
alas  ! that  any  sittings  should  be  not  free  where  the  Gos- 
pel in  its  purity  is  proclaimed. 

But  even  if  churches  were  every  where  built,  and  if  the 
“sittings”  in  them  were  all  free,  the  question  presents 
itself,  would  that  ministration  of  the  Gospel  which  now 
we  have  at  our  command,  would  it  avail  to  recall  the 
thousands  of  the  people  ? A mere  possibility  of  so  happy 
a consequence  is,  no  doubt,  enough  amply  to  warrant 
all  costs  and  labors  requisite  for  trying  the  experiment. 
Yet,  hitherto,  the  course  of  things  has  been  different. 
Congregations  have  called  for  churches  (buildings),  not 


284 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


churches  for  congregations : the  sepulchral  voice  of  an 
empty  church  does  not  fall  well  on  the  popular  ear. 

Let  leave  be  granted  for  affirming  that,  to  gather  the 
thousands  of  the  people — the  tens  of  thousands  that  now 
loiter  away  their  Sundays  within  sound  of  the  church 
chime,  there  must  be  brought  to  bear  upon  them  an  effect- 
ive Itinerancy  : — the  multitude  that  is  gone  astray  must 
be  followed,  and  must  be  pursued  into  their  fastnesses  of 
ignorance  and  profligacy  by  apostolic  men — that  is  to  say, 
by  none  other  than  the  best  men  of  whom  the  Church — 
the  Christian  body  at  large — might  make  her  boast.  This 
recovery  of  the  lost  will  be  no  task  for  ordinary  spirits. 
Yet  this  is  not  all ; for  a Doctrine,  as  well  as  an  Agency, 
is  now  called  for;  and  we  wait,  not  merely  for  the  men 
who  shall  preach  it,  but  for  that  which  they  must  carry 
with  them,  namely,  a new  Methodism. 

There  is  a tendency,  we  have  said,  in  the  two  now  pre- 
valent illusions,  which  have  become  characteristic  of  these 
last  days — there  is  in  them  a tendency  to  open  the  ground 
for  the  coming  in  of  this  re-animated  Gospel — this  Meth- 
odism OF  the  Future.  When  it  does  come,  although  it 
will  come  “ from  above,”  yet  will  it  come  in  the  track  of 
ordinary  causes,  and  these,  even  now,  are  speaking  of  its 
approach. 

There  never  fails  to  take  place  somewhere,  a reaction, 
proportioned,  more  or  less  exactly,  to  whatever  influences 
are  in  active  operation  around  us.  If,  indeed,  as  many 
seem  to  think — if  this  now  prevalent  ritual  formality  on 
the  one  hand,  and  if  the  modern  atheistic  philosophy  on  the 
other,  should  go  on  to  spread  as  an  inundation,  encircling 
a constantly  diminished  company  of  those  who  cordially 
affect  the  Christianity  of  the  Bible,  then  would  there  be 
reason  to  look  for  the  gathering  of  an  intense  feeling 
within  the  bosoms  of  a few,  among  whom  would  spring  up 
this  renovating  spirit — presently  bursting  its  way  out- 
ward, and  moving  with  power  through  the  masses  of  the 
people.  Of  what  sort  then  will  be  this  reactive  impulse, 
and  what  will  be  its  grounds?  We  venture  thus  to  pre- 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


285 


diet  concerning  it,  abstaining  from  speculations  that  would 
unwarrantably  meddle  with  incidental  circumstances,  and 
fixing  our  thoughts  upon  that  which  is  of  the  very  sub- 
stance of  a religious  revival,  in  harmony  always  with  the 
written  Revelation. 

Granting  as  possible,  yet  by  no  means  assuming  it  as 
certain,  that  those  now  prevalent  departures  from  the  faith 
which  so  much  alarm  Christian  men,  shall  severally,  and 
in  combination,  spread  still  further,  thus  narrowing  the 
space  that  is  occupied  by  the  Christian  community,  and 
at  the  same  time  undermining  this  ground,  and  reducing 
the  faith  of  many  to  a wavering  acquiescence,  and  to  a 
passive  Sunday  habit — should  it  be  so,  then,  within  some 
two  or  three  minds — minds  of  power  and  compass — there 
will  arise  a stern  questioning  of  themselves,  in  this  man- 
ner : — “ What  is  it  that  we  do  believe,  or  profess  to  be- 
lieve, and  on  what  grounds  ? or  how  is  it  that  we  are 
henceforward  to  maintain  our  position,  few  as  we  are, 
against  the  world?”  There  will  follow  from  such  an 
inquest — not  the  renewal  of  a fruitless  and  interminable 
controversy  with  the  hundred-headed  errors  that  are  on 
all  sides  triumphant;  but  a straight-forward  pursuit  of 
truth,  on  its  own  ground — the  Scriptures — and  such  a pur- 
suit of  it — a pursuit  in  such  a mood  of  intense  earnestness 
as  does  not  fail  of  success.  At  such  a time,  and  in  the 
instance  of  these  Christian  men — the  originators  of  the 
future  Methodism — there  would  be  a fulfilment  and  an 
illustration  of  the  words — “the  kingdom  of  heaven  sufFer- 
eth  violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force.” 

These  fresh  minds,  applying  the  unsophisticated  energy 
of  their  understandings  to  the  problem  before  them,  will 
reach  ground  which  they  will  know  to  be  immovable : — 
this  will  be  the  course  so  far  as  the  faculty  of  reason,  un- 
assisted, may  go.  But  thence  these  minds  will  be  carried 
onward  by  a Sovereign  Energy,  consentaneous  with  the 
natural  powers,  yet  far  outstripping  their  limits.  They 
will  convince  themselves,  while  using  diligently  all  proper 
implements  of  criticism  and  exposition,  that  Holy  Scrip- 


286 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


ture  has,  in  the  main,  been  truly  understood  from  the  first; 
and  then  they  will  awake  to  a sense  of  what  it  is  which 
this,  their  now  proven  faith,  imports. 

The  Methodists  of  the  time  past  took  up  their  theology 
as  they  found  it  ready  for  their  use,  in  the  confessions  and 
articles  of  the  several  Protestant  Churches — among  which 
the  points  of  difference  are  immaterial.  But  their  suc- 
cessors, of  the  time  future,  will  take  to  themselves  the 
same  theology,  under  conditions  of  mingled  advantage  and 
difficulty,  as  thus. — It  will  be  an  advantage  for  them  that 
the  grounds  of  religious  belief,  as  derived  from  the  canoni- 
cal writings,  have,  in  the  lapse  of  this  half  century,  been 
swept  quite  clear  of  that  mass  of  nugatory  exceptive  crit- 
icism which  once  encumbered  it.  By  the  boundless  in- 
dustry of  scholars — Christian  and  non-christian,  the  flimsy 
stuff  wherewith  the  Socinianism  of  Priestley’s  time  clothed 
itself,  has  been  well  disposed  of,  and  it  will  trouble  theol- 
ogy no  more.  The  question  now  is — not  what  the  apostles 
believed  and  taught;  but  only  this — The  apostolic  belief, 
conspicuously  certain  as  it  is  (historically  and  critically 
regarded)  should  it  be  our  belief,  because  it  was  theirs  ? 

Now  in  dealing  with  this  residuary  question  (if  indeed 
there  be  any  difficulty  attaching  to  it)  we  of  this  time  are, 
and  the  Christian  men  of  the  future  time  will  still  more  de- 
cisively be,  aided,  though  unwillingly,  by  our  adversary 
Romanism.  Let  us  imagine  that  the  wide  world,  or  the 
Church,  so  called,  and  the  world,  has — a protesting  few 
excepted — surrendered  itself  to  this  universal  spiritual  au- 
thority, and  that  its  flagrant  superstitions  and  its  tyrannies 
are  bowed  to,  and  obeyed,  on  all  sides.  Then  it  must  be 
that  those  who  shall  continue  to  loathe  these  idolatries,  and 
to  resent  this  despotism,  will  find  themselves  driven  in  upon 
the  only  position  where  a stand  may  by  any  means  be 
made,  namely  the  authority  of  Scripture,  this  being  held 
as  absolute,  and  not  to  be  abated  by  admixture  with  any 
other  pretended  sources  of  belief.  It  will  thus  be,  as  by 
an  urgent  necessity,  and  as  the  only  means  of  resisting  the 
abominations  and  the  cruelties  of  a triumphant  superstition, 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


287 


that  the  few  whom  we  are  supposing  to  stand  steadfast  in 
their  faith,  will  make  good  their  footing  on  the  only  prac- 
ticable ground ; and  when  they  are  thus,  and  there 
established,  the  question,  as  between  themselves  and  their 
infidel  antagonists,  will  have  been  superseded.  This  ques- 
tion, on  that  side,  might  seem  to  be  less  easily  determina- 
ble ; but,  as  toward  the  Romish  superstition,  all  is  peremp- 
tory and  clearly  defined.  At  such  a time  there  will  no" 
remain  an  inch  of  space  whereon  the  foot  may  rest,  be 
tween  these  two  positions  ; that  is  to  say,  unless,  in  the 
most  peremptory  manner,  and  to  the  exclusion  of  all  re- 
serves or  evasions,  the  sense  of  Scripture,  ascertained  and 
interpreted  on  a true  principle,  be  resolutely  adhered  to 
there  is  nothing  gross  or  abominable  in  the  superstitions 
of  Southern  Europe  that  must  not  be  submitted  to.  The 
tyranny  of  the  Romish  system  will  not  be  remiss  in  forcing 
its  idolatries  upon  those  who  yield  themselves,  at  all,  to  its 
pretensions  ; and  there  will  be  no  other  means  of  resisting 
those  pretensions,  but  a resolute  adherence  to  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. Hitherto  it  has  always  been  easy  to  hold  Romanism 
at  bay,  and  the  Bible  too ; but  this  liberty  will  be  gone 
when  Romanism  and  Ritualism  shall  have  gained  the  as- 
cendant, and  together  shall  fill  the  world. 

Thus,  by  the  compulsion  of  these  two  forces,  coming  in 
on  either  hand,  and  driven  to  betake  themselves  to  the  au- 
thority, and  to  shelter  themselves  in  the  plain  sense  of 
Scripture,  those  who  shall  put  in  movement  the  future 
Methodism,  and  whom  we  suppose  to  be,  not  the  zealous 
dypdfjLfjiaTOL  and  the  iSiojTac  of  less  remarkable  eras,  but  well 
taught  biblical  scholars,  will  feel,  as  we  of  this  time  do  not 
feel,  the  necessity, of  defining,  with  unambiguous  ex- 
plicitness, what  it  is  they  mean,  when  they  speak  of  the 
apostolic  writings  as  “ given  by  inspiration  of  God,”  and 
then  of  laying  down,  and  of  invariably  adhering  to,  certain 
principles  of  interpretation. 

As  to  the  first  of  these  preliminary  labors,  it  is  not 
merely  in  itself  a work  of  peculiar  difficulty,  but  it  involves 
the  breaking  up  of  so  many  inveterate  superstitions,  and 


288 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


the  dissipation  of  so  many  cherished  illusions,  that  we  may 
be  sure  it  will  never  be  attempted,  or,  if  attempted,  never 
carried  through,  in  easy  tranquil  times,  like  the  present ; — 
it  is  a work  which  will  be  forcibly  effected  by  strong  arms 
in  some  season  of  anguish  and  anxiety,  and  when  those 
who  set  about  it  shall  feel  that  they  are  wresting  immor- 
tality and  its  hopes  from  the  grasp  of  two  lawless  adver- 
saries. 

As  to  the  second,  it  will  flow  out  naturally  from  the  first, 
and  it  will  bear  an  analogy  to  the  revolution  that  was 
effected  in  physical  science  by  the  promulgation  of  the 
Baconian  philosophy,  and  in  accordance  with  that  analogy 
it  will  effect  the  final  expulsion  of  metaphysical  schemes 
of  Christian  doctrine  ; in  the  room  of  which  will  come  the 
fearless  Theology  of  Interpretation — offering  to  the 
eye,  as  it  must,  many  of  those  breaks  and  “faults” — those 
inferences — irreconcilable  the  one  with  the  other,  which, 
while  they  torment  the  theorist  and  the  logician,  open  the 
fields  of  immortality  before  ingenuous  spirits — and  which 
are,  and  must  ever  be,  the  characteristics  of  a theology 
that  is  fragmentary  and  disjointed,  for  this  very  reason — 
that  it  exhibits  portions  of  eternal  truths,  to  finite  minds. 

The  movers  of  the  future  Methodism  will  indeed  hold 
in  their  hands  the  same  Bible  which  we  hold  ; but  then  it 
will  be  to  them,  as  one  might  say,  a new  Revelation  ; — not 
because  it  will  bring  into  the  creed  any  new  article,  or 
expunge  any ; but  inasmuch  as  it  gives  to  each  an  im- 
measurable expansion,  and  enriches  each  with  a treasure 
of  hitherto  unthought-of  meaning. 

Such  a renovated  creed  these  preachers  will  find  the 
need  of  in  making  good  their  first  assault  upon  the  con- 
sciences of  men,  which  lately  have  undergone  a sophisti- 
cation that'  quite  turns  aside  the  shafts  of  the  modern 
preacher.  The  Methodists  of  the  past  time  (as  we  have 
said)  found  the  consciences  of  men  greatly  benumbed,  in- 
deed, or  paralyzed,  by  sensuality  and  earthly  passions  ; 
yet  not  generally  recusant  of  the  preacher’s  appeal.  Not 
so  the  masses  of  men  at  this  time ; for  the  wide  currency 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


289 


that  has  been  given  to  various  schemes  of  physical  meta- 
physics has,  in  a positive  sense,  perverted  the  moral  con- 
sciousness of  multitudes,  and  has  furnished  the  minds  that 
have  been  thus  perverted  with  the  plausible  sophisms  of 
a spurious  philosophy — a miserable  quackery,  by  aid  of 
which  men  persuade  themselves,  and  each  other,  that  sin 
is  not  sin,  but  misfortune. 

A popular  ministration  of  Christianity,  which  should 
lay  anew  a solid  foundation  on  this  ground,  and  which 
should  thence  move  forward  to  awaken  the  fears  of  men 
as  guilty,  could  not  fail  to  convulse  the  social  system  ; and 
especially  as  there  would  follow  close  upon  it  a more  dis- 
tinct and  impressive  interpretation  of  those  passages  that 
are  affirmatory  of  future  punishment.  The  past  Method- 
ism took  to  itself  the  belief  which  it  found  ; but  the  coming 
Methodism  must  derive  its  belief  anew  from  Scripture,  by 
bringing  to  bear  upon  this  difficult  subject  a reformed  prin- 
ciple of  biblical  interpretation. 

The  urgent  necessity  that  will  be  felt  by  the  preachers 
of  the  future  time  for  making  good  every  step  of  their 
ground,  when  they  come,  in  the  present  state  of  opinion, 
to  assail  the  consciences  of  men — infatuated  more  than 
stupefied,  must  lead  to  consequences  that  are  little  appre- 
hended. When  once  this  weighty  question  of  the  after 
life  has  been  opened,  and  when  it  shall  have  come  into  the 
hands  of  well-informed  biblical  interpreters,  a controversy 
will  ensue,  in  the  progress  of  which  it  will  be  discovered 
that,  with  unobservant  eyes,  we  and  our  predecessors 
have  so  been  walking  up  and  down,  and  running  hither 
"and  thither,  among  dim  notices  and  indications  of  the  fu- 
ture destinies  of  the  human  family,  as  to  have  failed  to 
gather  up  or  to  regard  much  that  has  lain  upon  the  pages 
of  the  Bible,  open  and  free  to  our  use.  Those  who,  through 
a course  of  years,  have  been  used  to  read  the  Scrip- 
tures unshackled  by  systems,  and  bound  to  no  con- 
ventional modes  of  belief,  such  readers  must  have  felt  an 
impatience  in  waiting — not  for  the  arrival  of  a new  rev- 
elation from  Heaven,  but  of  an  ample  and  unfettered 

N 


290 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


interpretation  of  that  which  has  been  so  long  in  our 
hands. 

Thus  the  future  Methodism,  as  we  assume,  will  feel  the 
need  of,  and  will  acquire  for  itself,  under  pressure  of  the 
most  urgent  motives,  an  incontrovertible  exposition  of  the 
Scripture  doctrine  concerning  the  future  administration  of 
justice ; but  then  it  will  not  make  this  acquisition  as  if  it 
could  be  held  as  an  insulated  dogma  ; for  whatever  is  fur- 
ther ascertained,  on  this  ground,  will  come  to  stand  in  its 
true  relationship  to  much  beside,  which,  in  the  course  of 
the  same  argument,  will  have  started  to  view,  as  the  gen- 
uine sense  of  the  inspired  books.  The  doctrine  of  future 
punishment,  as  a belief  drawn  from  Scripture,  and  so 
drawn  as  to  dissipate  prevalent  illusions,  and  to  spread  on 
all  sides  a salutary  and  effective  alarm — such  a belief  will 
take  its  place  in  the  midst  of  an  expanded  prospect  of  the 
compass  and  intention  of  the  Christian  system. 

The  past  Methodism  was  far  from  being  a message  of 
wrath,  proclaimed  by  men  of  fierce  and  fanatical  tem- 
pers : — it  was  a message  of  joy,  hope,  and  love  ; and  it 
made  its  conquests  as  such,  notwithstanding  those  bold 
and  unmeasured  denunciations  against  sin  which  it  so  often 
uttered.  And  so  it  will  be  with  the  future  Methodism  ; 
and  although  it  will  rest  itself  upon  a distinct  and  labori- 
ously obtained  belief  concerning  the  “wrath  to  come”— 
a belief  such  as  will  heave  the  human  mind  with  a deep 
convulsive  dread,  yet,  and  notwithstanding  this  prelimin- 
ary, the  renovation  which  we  look  for  will  come  in  as  the 
splendor  of  day  comes  in  the  tropics — it  will  be  a sudden 
brightness  that  makes  all  things  glad  ! 

Who  is  so  bold  as  not  to  draw  back  trembling,  al- 
though the  prospect  be  bright,  when  he  approaches  a 
meditation  such  as  this,  and  ventures  to  inquire  what  that 
feeling  shall  be,  and  what  that  condition  of  the  Church 
shall  be,  when,  in  its  simplicity  of  expression,  and  in  the 
incomprehensible  vastness  of  its  import,  the  First  Truth 
of  the  Christian  system  shall  present  itself  to  the  minds  of 
men — not  as  a verbal  proposition,  but  as  a reality  ? Those 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


291 


wordy  mists  wherewith  controversies,  long  continued  and 
often  repeated,  enshroud  religious  principles,  will  have 
passed  away ; and  the  darkness  of  misbelief,  which  sheds 
a gloom  beyond  its  own  limits,  wdll  have  gone  off  to  the 
distance  as  a cloud.  Preachers,  well  understanding  that 
science,  though  good  and  genuine  in  itself,  can  contribute 
absolutely  nothing  toward  the  interpretation  of  truths  eter- 
nal, and  feeling  well  that  human  eloquence  has  little,  or 
nothing  of  its  own  to  add  to  the  impressiveness  of  those 
truths,  shall  allow  them  to  be  offered  in  the  strictly  ren- 
dered terms  of  Scripture,  to  the  reason  and  to  the  con- 
sciences of  men. 

But  although  philosophy  can  never  succeed  in  its  at- 
tempts to  expound  salvation,  nor  eloquence  do  much  to 
recommend  it,  human  nature  from  its  depths  responds  to 
it ; and  in  the  hearing  of  it  wakes  up  to  a new  existence, 
which  is  felt  to  be,  indeed,  its  destiny.  What  is  it  that  is 
meant  when  it  is  said  that  “ God  created  man  in  his  own 
image,”  and  that  “ in  the  image  of  God  created  he  man?” 
Of  this  eternal  alliance  man  has  long  ceased  to  be  dis- 
tinctly conscious,  albeit  the  struggling  of  his  insatiate  de- 
sires gives  him  notice  of  it  as  a mystery  of  his  being : but 
now,  in  the  hearing  of  this  truth,  that  God  has  not  forgot- 
ten that  which  man  has  ceased  to  know  or  regard,  he 
listens  as  to  that  which,  although  it  be  new,  is  not  strange; 
in  hearing  it  he  returns  to  his  destined  position,  and,  while 
pride  is  utterly  humbled,  he  rejoices  to  be  ‘‘  made  par- 
taker of  the  divine  nature,”  in  Christ,  who  is  God  and  man 
— Head  of  the  human  family,  and  its  Almighty  Deliverer. 

The  anticipations  that  are  now  most  often  uttered,  when 
a bright  future  is  the  theme  of  the  preacher’s  discourse, 
have  this  complexion — namely.  That,  by  a blessing  grant- 
ed much  more  copiously  than  heretofore  to  the  various 
means  of  religious  instruction  and  influence,  as  at  present 
employed ; — and  by  the  diffusion  of  Bibles,  and  the  build- 
ing of  churches,  and  the  carrying  out  of  plans  of  popular 
education,  and  the  like  commendable  labors,  Christian 
communities  will  at  length  be  christianized  indeed ; and 


292 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


that  thence,  and  by  such  means,  the  pagan  world  will 
slowly  or  speedily  be  converted.  There  are  also  those 
(zealous  theorists)  who,  in  looking  forward  to  better  times, 
in  a religious  sense,  fix  their  eye,  with  a restless  eager- 
ness, upon  the  downfall  of  this  or  that  false  system,  the 
existence  of  which  they  think  is  now  the  one  and  principal 
hinderance,  standing  in  the  way  of  Christianity.  “ If 
popery  were  in  the  dust,  and  if  all  state  religions  were 
trampled  on — then  would  the  Gospel  take  its  triumphant 
course 

But  if,  in  any  such  modes  as  these,  or  in  the  track  of 
this  order  of  causes,  the  Gospel  is  anew  to  take  hold  of 
the  masses  of  men,  in  a powerful  manner,  then  will  a ren- 
ovation, thus  coming  about,  be  indeed  an  anomalous  event; 
for  it  will  have  no  sort  of  correspondence  with  any  pre- 
ceding instance  of  religious  advancement.  In  every  in- 
stance that  offers  itself  as  bearing  upon  such  a question, 
truth  and  piety  have  first  retired,  and  have  been  lost  to  the 
view  of  the  world  in  the  bosoms  of  a silent  “seven  thou- 
sand ” — known  only  to  the  Searcher  of  hearts,  and  not  even 
to  each  other,  or  to  the  world.  Such  has  been  ever  the 
state  of  things  in  the  hour  preceding  the  dawn  of  day. 
The  return  of  truth  and  piety  has  been  a bright  and  sud- 
den visitation  from  on  high,  as  in  the  thickest  gloom  of 
night,  and  in  the  course  of  this  visitation  elementary  prin- 
ciples have  broken  away  from  their  entanglements  with 
secondary  truths,  and  have  stood  revealed  in  their  simple 
majesty  before  the  eyes  of  men.  Thus  it  was  that,  in  a 
time  of  wide-spread  death,  the  Gospel  brought  in  the  Re- 
formation, not  the  Reformation  the  Gospel.  And  thus,  too, 
at  a time  not  less  death-like,  did  the  same  Gospel  carry 
Methodism  over  half  the  world ; and  thus,  as  we  venture 
to  think,  shall  these  first  truths,  at  a moment  when  the  two 
now  prevalent  delusions  have  reached  their  destined  lim- 
its, burst  through  all  restraint,  and  claim  for  Christianity 
anew,  its  own  position  as  the  source  of  all  good,  and  the 
only  ground  of  hope  for  man.  Those  influences  (legiti- 
mate as  they  are)  to  which  Christian  people  are  looking, 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


293 


33  the  proper  causes  of  the  expected  triumph  of  the  Gos- 
pel, will  follow  as  its  consequence;  and  they  will  so  be 
brought  into  operation,  on  a vastly  extended  scale,  as  shall 
give  a new  aspect  to  every  country  wherein  they  shall  be 
allowed  freely  to  take  effect. 

And  which  are  those  countries?  If  we  are  to  adhere 
to  the  rule  of  analogy,  the  next  coming  religious  renova- 
tion, when  the  Gospel  shall  again,  and  in  its  power,  its 
majesty,  and  its  ineffable  mystery,  come  home  to  the  minds 
of  men — this  approaching  visitation  will  take  its  course 
restrictively ^ as  among  professedly  Christian  nations,  and 
then  (not  according  to  any  assignable  rule)  shall  it  spread 
over,  or  make  inroads  upon,  the  non-Christian  wastes 
of  the  world.  Christianity,  at  the  first,  went  wherever  a 
preparation  had  been  made  for  its  reception  by  the  scat- 
tering and  settlement  of  the  Jewish  race,  and  by  the  pre- 
existent diffusion  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament, 
in  the  Greek  language.  Within  these  limits  the  Gospel 
seated  itself,  and  there  it  held  its  position  with  more  or 
less  of  continuity ; and  beyond  the  same  limits  it  was,  in- 
deed, carried  forth,  and  it  won  its  triumphs ; but  soon  it 
lost  its  hold  ; soon  it  retreated,  and  disappeared,  leaving 
only  some  scattered  and  scarcely  appreciable  fragments 
on  its  spots,  to  denote  the  course  it  had  taken. 

The  Reformation  also  yielded  itself  to  a restrictive  in- 
fluence ; or,  as  we  might  call  it,  a law  of  limitation,  and 
it  did  so  in  a manner  still  more  marked.  It  broke,  as  a 
sudden  glare,  over  the  entire  surface  of  Europe ; and  it 
entered  and  convulsed  every  one  of  the  countries  then  re- 
presenting the  Roman  empire  ; but  as  to  most  of  them,  it 
convulsed  them  only  for  a moment,  and  soon  was  driven 
out  and  extinguished.  As  a permanent  religious  renova- 
tion, scarcely  did  it  extend  itself  over  the  space  occupied 
by  the  several  families  of  the  Teutonic  race ; and  within 
even  these  limits,  its  occupation  of  its  original  surface  has 
been  precarious,  giving  way  perpetually,  as  well  to  the 
returning  influence  of  Romanism,  as  to  the  more  fatal 
spread  of  a feebly-christianized  infidelity.  In  any  true  and 


294 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


religious  sense,  does  the  work  of  the  Reformers  survive 
any  where,  but  among  the  English  people  ? It  is  among 
the  English,  and  these  only,  that  an  unambiguous  creed — 
orthodox  and  evangelic — the  faith  that  was  recovered  by 
the  Reformers,  is  boldly  professed,  and  is  sustained  con- 
currently, by  independent  communions. 

The  Methodism  of  the  last  century  swept  over  nearly 
the  same  surface,  and  gave  animation  to  those  commun- 
ions only  which  still  held  the  creed  of  the  Reformation. 
Upon  this  surface  the  renovation  which  was  brought  about 
by  Methodism  has  well  maintained  itself  in  its  several 
transmuted  forms,  such  as  a revived  church  feeling,  a dif- 
fused evangelic  profession  ; and  then  the  missionary  zeal, 
and  then  those  many  modes  of  Christian  benevolence 
which  pursue  their  objects  by  means  of  voluntary  organ- 
izations. 

In  the  British  Islands,  and  in  the  colonies,  every  where, 
and  in  the  States  of  America — that  is  to  say,  wherever  the 
English  language  is  spoken,  and  nowhere  else — there  are 
to  be  found  individuals  many,  and  communities,  by  and 
among  whom  a new  ministration  of  the  Gospel,  in  its 
power  and  purity,  would  be  hailed  with  profound  emo- 
tion, would  be  welcomed,  and  listened  to,  and  obeyed.  So 
far  as  calculable  probabilities  might  be  allowed  to  find 
place  in  relation  to  so  high  a subject,  there  are  two  events 
w.hich  would  seem  in  an  equal  degree  amazing  and  un- 
likely, and  they  are  these,  namely — That  a renovated 
Christianity  should  not  be  listened  to,  and  joyfully  accept- 
ed, by  the  religious  communities  of  the  English  race ; — 
or.  That  it  should  be  so  listened  to  by  any  of  those  cul- 
tured nations  of  continental  Europe,  which  have  long  since 
thrown  Christianity  out  of  their  serious  regard,  and  have 
learned  to  think  and  speak  of  it  as  a religion  which,  though 
better  than  some,  is  now  effectively  obsolete. 

Assuredly  it  is  with  no  leaning  toward  a puritanic  in- 
terpretation of  the  Fourth  Commandment  (which  was  a 
Jewish,  or  rather  a Rabbinical,  and  not  a Christian  render- 
ing of  it),  but  under  the  sure  guidance  of  a moral  experi- 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


295 


ment  which  has  been  carried  forward  on  the  largest  scale, 
and  under  all  imaginable  varieties  of  circumstance,  that  we 
may  thus  conclude,  that,  where  the  Sunday  retains,  in  una- 
bated force,  its  sacredness,  as  well  in  the  feelings  of  a com- 
munity, as  in  their  habitudes  and  usages,  there  will  be  found 
— not  scattered  individuals  merely,  but  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple, ready  to  accept,  and  eager  to  listen  to,  the  Gospel,  once 
again  proclaimed  in  its  grandeur,  simplicity,  and  power. 

A throwing  off  of  the  Sunday  feeling,  and  an  easy  con- 
tempt of  religious  usages,  such  as  has  become  the  well- 
nigh  universal  characteristic  of  the  continental  nations, 
may  consist,  and  it  does  consist,  with  the  tolerated  pres- 
ence of  small  clusters  of  Christian  men,  still  clinging,  as 
they  may,  to  a serious  religious  belief,  and  adhering  to 
religious  forms ; but  in  such  countries,  a new  Methodism, 
if,  indeed,  it  shall  visit  them  at  all,  will  provoke,  in  one 
mode,  or  in  another,  its  new  Martyrdoms.  The  Gospel, 
if  it  takes  its  course  through  such  lands,  will  run  this  way 
and  that,  over  the  surface,  as  a torrent  of  fire. 

It  may  well  be  imagined,  and  it  might  almost  be  pre- 
dicted that,  at  such  a time,  w^hen  Christianity  in  its  purity 
shall  break  in  (if  ever  it  does  so  break  in)  upon  the  national 
impiety  of  France,  Spain,  (Germany),  Austria,  Italy,  Rus- 
sia, the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  whatever  may  be  their 
mind,  or  their  readiness  to  do  their  office  as  of  old,  will  be 
spared  the  necessity  of  grasping  the  sword  and  brand  in 
defense  of  the  Church ; for  it  will  then  be  seen  (so  we 
may  predict)  that  the  soul  of  Decius,  of  Galerius,  of  Dio- 
cletian, may  find  a lodgment  in  the  bosom  of  the  modern 
atheist,  more  thoroughly  to  its  taste  than  was  that  of  an 
Innocent  III.,  or  a Bonner. 

But  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  actual  religious 
condition  of  the  people,  or  of  the  tendency  of  opinion  in 
England,  or  elsewhere,  throughout  the  world,  where  the 
English  have  created  for  themselves  a home,  it  is  still  true 
that  those  feelings  are  cherished,  and  those  usages  are  ad- 
hered to,  by  the  mass  of  the  people — certainly  by  a ma- 
jority of  the  middle  classes,  which  hold  them  in  readiness 


296 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


always  for  the  reception  of  a revived  Christianity.  There 
is  a marked  difference  between  ourselves  and  every  other 
branch  of  the  civilized  commonwealth — the  nations  of 
continental  Europe — in  this  respect,  that  they  are  looking 
about  with  a vague  anxiety,  in  this  direction  and  in  that, 
hoping  for  social  ameliorations  to  be  effected  by  some 
process  of  political  regeneration : we — that  is  to  say — the 
observers  of  Sunday,  and  the  holders  of  the  Bible,  though 
not  indifferent  to  political  improvement,  yet  deeply  feel 
that  no  alleged  improvement  can  be  in  itself  desirable,  or 
be  permanently  good,  which  does  not  spring  out  of  Chris- 
tianity directly,  or  at  least  receive  its  sanction. 

The  religious  convictions  of  many  around  us  may  have 
been  loosened  or  impaired  ; yet  not  so  injured,  as  that  the 
renovation  of  them  would  not  be  joyfully  welcomed,  even 
as  a man  exults  in  the  restoration  of  sight  or  hearing. 
Multitudes  are  there  on  all  sides,  to  whom,  although  they 
have  gone  out  of  the  way,  a return  to  Christian  belief  and 
Christian  usages  would  involve  no  strange  or  incongruous 
revolution  of  mind  ; but  only  a repentant  acquiescence  in 
principles  too  long  forgotten,  or  misunderstood.  Multi- 
tudes also  are  there,  who,  although  their  present  religious 
condition  is,  in  their  own  estimation  of  it,  ambiguous,  yet 
stand  prepared  to  listen  to  a boldly-proclaimed  Gospel 
with  gladness  and  animation : they  are  the  constant  fre- 
quenters of  public  worship — to  its  forms  and  observances 
they  yield  themselves,  not  reluctantly,  nor  yet  cordially, 
but  wishing  that  the  service  they  take  part  in  was  borne 
out  in  their  bosoms  by  a less  evanescent  feeling.  Churches 
are  filled  by  those  to  whom  the  first  wakening  sounds  of 
another  Whitefield’s  voice  would  be  hailed  as  bringing 
“ glad  tidings  of  great  joy.” 

When,  as  now,  we  think  of  such  a renovation,  we  in- 
clude in  this  idea  of  the  future  no  new  or  supplementary 
revelation — no  new  creed — not  the  rising  of  a new  sect, 
but  only  this,  that  there  should  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
human  nature  the  full  energy  of  Eternal  Truth,  by  means 
of  the  existing  ministrations  of  the  Gospel.  A difficulty 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


297 


inseparable  from  the  subject,  and  consequent  upon  its  very 
nature,  attends  us  whenever  the  course  of  religious  move- 
ments is  spoken  of,  which,  while  they  stand  connected 
always  with  visible  causes,  with  human  agency,  and  with 
known  motives,  have  also  a higher  cause,  namely  the  Sov- 
ereign Will  of  Him  from  whom  all  good  comes,  and  of 
whose  counsels  man  knows  nothing. 

Thus,  in  this  present  instance,  it  might  be  easy,  or  not 
extremely  difficult,  so  to  forecast  the  present  tendency  of 
opinions,  in  England  at  least,  as  might  warrant  the  belief 
that  a powerful  religious  reaction  is  near  at  hand.  But 
here  we  should  be  checked  by  considerations  of  another 
kind ; for  a mere  reaction,  arising  from  the  return  of  cal- 
culable influences,  is  not  what  we  desire,  or  what  we  now 
need.  Puritanism  was,  to  a great  extent,  a reaction  only; 
and  so,  too,  was  that  profligacy  and  impiety  which  broke 
over  the  land  when  Puritanism  met  its  political  over- 
throw. But  the  Methodism  that  soon  followed  was  no 
I'eaction,  which  might  have  been  foreseen ; for  it  rose 
without  visible  causation ; it  came  from  above ; it  found 
its  lodgment  in  the  bosoms  of  two  or  three — the  chosen 
instruments  of  Heaven  ; — and  as  was  its  commencement, 
such  its  progress. 

Shall  not  then  the  now  looked  for  and  needed  renova- 
tion come  in  upon  us  in  a like  sovereign  manner  ? We  do 
not  expect  unearthly  visitants  to  descend,  and  to  become 
the  preachers  of  the  Gospel ; for  those  who  shall  speak  as 
did  Whitefield  and  Wesley,  will  be  men  such  as  they 
were,  compassed  with  those  infirmities  that  are  insepar- 
able from  humanity.  But  they  will  not  be  the  men  whom 
we,  of  this  or  that  Church,  should  have  singled  out ; — far 
otherwise  : perhaps  they  will  not  be  of  ‘‘our”  Church  at 
all ; and  the  course  they  will  pursue,  and  the  means  they 
will  adopt  for  making  full  proof  of  their  ministry,  will  be 
of  a kind  that  shall  sorely  grate  upon  the  tastes,  and  shock 
the  cherished  convictions  of  many.  On  the  one  hand  they 
will  be  reviled  because  they  are  seen  to  render  what  will 
be  thought  an  unwarrantable  homage  to  constituted  au- 


298 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


thorities,  ^nd  because  they  refuse  to  lead  the  onslaught 
upon  this  and  that  “ corrupt  system.”  On  the  other  side, 
not  improbably,  the  irregularities  which  such  a ministry 
necessarily  involves,  will  deprive  them  of  all  favor  in  high 
places. 

Every  season  of  religious  renovation  comes  upon  the 
men  of  that  time  as  a winnowing.  He  who  comes  at 
such  times,  comes  with  “ his  fan  in  his  hand,”  and  he 
ceases  not  in  his  work  until  he  has  “thoroughly  purged 
his  floor.”  That  is  to  say,  as  often  as  first  principles  are 
presented  to  the  minds  of  men  with  power  and  freshness, 
this  presentation  acts  discriminately  upon  all  who  are 
placed  within  its  influence.  The  evangelists  do  not  leave 
us  to  surmise  that  this  dispersive  effect  attended  the 
preaching  of  Christ,  on  all  occasions,  for  they  affirm  it 
repeatedly.  The  arrogant,  the  fanatical,  the  self-opinion- 
ated, and  the  worldly-minded  were  “offended  at  him,”  and 
these  four  sorts  of  gainsayers  make  themselves  conspicu- 
ous in  each  returning  season  of  religious  refreshment. 
Small  truths,  or  secondary  principles,  may  be  promulgated 
in  loud  tones,  and  with  extreme  vehemence,  and  yet  the 
world  will  bear  with  it ; but  great  truths,  when  they  are 
proclaimed  by  those  who  feel  them  to  be  such,  are  never 
listened  to  without  producing  an  effect  of  one  kind,  or  of 
another.  Human  nature,  touched  to  the  quick,  kindles  at 
the  first  hearing  of  them,  rouses  itself  to  resistance,  and 
then  either  yields  itself,  or  resents,  as  an  insult  and  an  in- 
jury, the  preacher’s  challenge. 

But  while,  in  this  manner,  a new  proclamation  of  the 
Gospel  acts  upon  the  multitude  as  a process  of  discrim- 
ination, it  finds  always  a small  number  whom  it  beckons 
forward,  to  follow  gladly,  rather  than  challenges  to  choose 
their  part ; and  these  are  those  who  long  have  been  look- 
ing for,  and  expecting,  this  visitation  which  now  makes 
them  glad. 

We  have  thus  spoken  of  the  Methodism  of  the  past 
age,  and  of  that  which  we  presume  to  be  future,  so  far  as 
these,  or  any  such  like  refreshments  of  Christian  piety, 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


299 


make  themselves  visible  on  this  side  the  unseen  world, 
and  so  far  as  they  may  furnish  the  subjects,  and  supply 
the  materials  of  religious  history.  Yet  the  very  same  or- 
der of  events  stands  in  relationship — although  it  be  occult 
— to  that  invisible  community ; nor  do  these  recurrent 
seasons  of  animation  fail  to  give  some  dim  indications  of 
this  remote  connection.  With  due  caution,  this  subject 
may  be  glanced  at  for  a moment. 

The  pomp  and  circumstance  of  ecclesiastical  affairs — 
the  rise  and  fall  of  hierarchies — the  springing  up  of  new 
opinions — the  alternate  loss  and  recovery  of  Christian 
doctrine — and  the  part  played  by  the  leading  Churchmen 
of  each  age,  together  with  the  witness-bearing  and  the 
sufferings  of  martyrs — these  things  attract  the  eye,  and 
engage  the  ear,  and  we  are  prone,  while  contemplating  the 
ever-shifting  scene,  to  think  that  the  entire  movement — 
the  compass  of  religious  history,  is  before  us.  Yet  we 
can  not  so  think  if,  in  a more  religious  mood,  and  with  the 
inspired  writings  in  our  hands,  we  look  onward  and  be- 
yond this  range  of  proximate  objects,  and  penetrate  the 
mist  that  rests  between  us  and  those  things  among  which 
Faith  ruminates. 

When  religious  history  is  thus  contemplated,  as  from  a 
higher  position,  and  when  it  is  seen  apart  from  its  mun- 
dane glare,  and  its  accidents,  and  when  we  stand  at  such 
a distance  from  the  noisy  arena  as  to  hear  nothing  of  its 
agitations,  then  does  there  come  forth,  if  dimly,  yet  not 
unsubstantially,  an  order  of  events  obeying  a law  of  the 
spiritual  economy,  such  as  this,  namely — that  there  is 
going  forward,  through  the  lapse  of  ages,  a periodic  gath- 
ering of  human  spirits,  in  multitudes — in  crowds — for  re- 
plenishing that  kingdom  which  is  under  the  hand  of  the 
“ Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  Souls.”  He,  the  Redeemer  of 
the  world,  as  he  is  the  “ First-born  of  the  Dead,”  is  the 
Sovereign  of  that  realm  of  ransomed  spirits.  During  the 
running  out  of  this  present  economy  it  is  among,  and  over, 
this  company,  which  “ no  man  can  number,”  that  his  shield 
and  sceptre  are  extended. 


300 


METHODISM  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


No  age  has  been  so  dark — no  time  so  corrupt  in  doc- 
trine, or  in  manners,  as  not  to  have  sent  forward  from 
Earth  to  Hades  a tide,  albeit  a slackened  tide,  of  souls,  ran- 
somed from  the  ills  of  earth  : but  at  moments — and  as 
with  a sudden  swell — it  is  as  if  the  portals  of  Paradise 
were  thrown  wide  open,  and  as  if  the  plains  of  that  re- 
gion were  to  be  made  glad  with  the  arrival  of  hosts  of 
spirits,  safe  housed,  and  as  if,  from  time  to  time,  fresh 
proof  were  to  be  given  to  the  expectant  inhabiters  of  that 
realm,  who  are  “ the  prisoners  of  hope,”  that  the  scheme 
of  human  salvation  is  still  in  full  progress  on  earth,  and 
that  the  promised  gathering — the  harvest — shall  not  fail 
to  be  brought  home  in  its  season. 


NOTES. 


The  materials  or  documents  wherein  the  history  of  Method- 
ism is  to  be  found,  are  not  recondite  : for  the  most  part  they  are 
readily  accessible  to  every  one,  and,  in  fact,  the  succession  of 
writers  who,  whether  v/ith  a friendly  or  a hostile  feeling,  have 
put  this  history  together,  each  in  his  own  manner,  have,  for  these 
various  purposes,  brought  forward  almost  every  thing  that  is  the 
most  pertinent  in  this  mass  of  evidence.  Nevertheless,  it  would 
not  be  difficult  (and  would  not  have  been  so  to  the  present 
writer)  to  cull  some  fresh  passages  from  the  same  sources ; and 
he  might,  moreover,  have  brought  forward  a few  unpublished  let- 
ters, which  were  kindly  ofiered  to  his  inspection  by  some  who  are 
possessed  of  such  treasures.  But  inasmuch  as  it  has  not  entered 
into  his  plan  to  compile  biographies,  nor  to  attempt  to  do  again 
what  has  already  (in  a literary  sense)  been  well  done,  he  has 
refrained  from  availing  himself,  to  any  great  extent,  of  these  ma- 
terials, at  least  in  giving  them  a place  in  this  volume. 

It  seems,  however,  desirable,  and  indeed  it  is  incumbent  upon 
a writer  who  takes  a position  differing  from  that  occupied  by 
others,  to  adduce  evidence  in  support  of  opinions  that  are  likely 
to  be  called  in  question.  A few  pages,  therefore,  of  this  volume 
will  be  devoted  to  the  purpose  of  bringing  together,  chiefly  from 
Wesley’s  Journal,  and  from  the  Minutes  of  Conference,  passages 
that  may  serve  to  illustrate,  and  to  sustain,  the  averments  and  the 
opinions  which  the  writer  thinks  warrantable  and  correct. 

As  to  Methodism  at  large — the  facts  relating  to  its  rise  and 
progress  have  long  since  become  the  staple  of  religious  history, 
and  they  are  such  as  need  little  or  no  attestation.  It  is  solely,  or 
chiefly,  on  points  touching  Wesley’s  mind  and  intention,  as  the 
founder  of  Wesleyanism,  that  it  seemed  desirable  to  adduce  evi- 
dence. The  reader  who  is  little  acquainted  with  Wesleyan 
affairs  might  be  unprepared  to  admit  some  allegations  which  the 
following  passages  incontestably  establish.  As  to  those  readers 
to  whom  these  sources  of  information  have  always  been  familiar, 


S02 


NOTES. 


the  production  of  a few  paragraphs,  as  it  could  add  nothing  to 
their  knowledge,  so  would  it  fail  to  affect  their  long-ago  adopted 
opinions. 

Note  to  pages  31  and  43,  et  seq. 

When  Wesley’s  credulity,  or  his  tendency  to  listen  to  the  super- 
natural, is  affirmed  (and  it  can  not  he  denied),  justice  demands 
that  instances  should  be  adduced,  showing  that  he  did — if  not 
always,  yet  sometimes — hold  and  profess  a suspended  opinion, 
and  content  himself  with  a simple  statement  of  facts — or  of  what 
he  believed  to  be  facts— followed  by  a conjectural  solution,  only, 
of  the  perplexing  circumstances  of  the  case  before  him. 

The  following  narrative  occurs  in  Wesley’s  Journal,  June  1st, 
1764: — “About  seven,  Mr.  B.  was  occasionally  mentioning 
what  had  lately  occurred  in  the  next  parish.  I thought  it  worth 
a further  inquiry,  and  therefore  ordered  our  horses  to  be  brought 
immediately.  Mr.  B.  guided  us  to  Mr.  Ogiivie’s  house,  the  min- 
ister of  the  parish,  who  informed  us  that  a strange  disorder  had 
appeared  in  his  parish  between  thirty  and  forty  years  ago,  but 
that  nothing  of  the  kind  had  been  known  there  since,  till  some 
time  in  September  last.  A boy  was  then  taken  ill,  and  so  con- 
tinues still.  In  the  end  of  January,  or  beginning  of  February, 
many  other  children  were  taken,  chiefly  girls,  and  a few  grown 
persons.  They  begin  with  an  involuntary  shaking  of  their  hands 
and  feet.  Then  their  lips  are  convulsed ; next  their  tongue, 
which  seems  to  cleave  to  the  roof  of  the  mouth.  Then  the  eyes 
are  set,  staring  terribly ; and  the  whole  face  variously  distorted. 
Presently  they  start  up,  and  jump  ten,  fifteen,  or  twenty  times 
together,  straight  upward,  two,  three,  or  more  feet  from  the 
ground.  Then  they  start  forward,  and  run  with  amazing  swift- 
ness, two,  three,  or  five  hundred  yards.  Frequently  they  run  up, 
like  a cat,  to  the  top  of  a house,  and  jump  on  the  ridge  of  it,  as  on 
the  ground.  But  wherever  they  are,  they  never  fall  or  miss  their 
footing  at  all.  After  they  have  run  and  jumped  for  some  time, 
they  drop  down  as  dead.  When  they  come  to  themselves,  they 
usually  tell  when  and  where  they  shall  be  taken  again;  frequently 
how  often,  and  where  they  shall  jump  ; and  to  what  places  they 
shall  run.  I asked,  ‘ Are  any  of  them  near  ? ’ He  said,  ‘ Yes, 
at  those  houses.’  We  w^alked  thither  without  delay : one  of  them 
was  four  years  and  a half  old  ; the  other  about  eighteen.  The 
child  we  found  had  had  three  or  four  fits  that  day,  running  and 


NOTES. 


303 


jumping  like  the  rest ; and,  in  particular,  leaping  many  times 
from  a high  table  without  the  least  hurt.  The  young  woman 
was  the  only  person  of  them  all  who  used  to  keep  her  senses  dur- 
ing the  fit.  In  answer  to  many  questions,  she  said,  ‘ I first  feel  a 
pain  in  my  left  foot,  then  in  my  head.  Then  my  hands  and  feet 
shake,  and  I can’t  speak  ; and  quickly  I begin  to  jump  or  run.’ 
While  we  were  talking,  she  cried  out,  O ! I have  a pain  in  my 
foot — it  is  in  my  hand.  It  is  here,  at  the  bending  of  my  arm. 
Oh  ! my  head ! my  head ! my  head  ! ’ Immediately  her  arms 
were  stretched  out,  and  were  as  an  iron  bar.  I could  not  bend 
one  of  her  fingers  ; and  her  body  was  bent  backward,  the  lower 
part  remaining  quite  erect,  while  her  back  formed  exactly  a half 
circle,  her  head  hanging  even  with  her  hips.  I was  going  to 
catch  her,  but  one  said,  ‘ Sir,  you  may  let  her  alone,  for  they 
never  fall.’  But  I defy  all  mankind  to  account  for  her  not  fall- 
ing, when  the  trunk  of  her  body  hung  in  that  manner. 

“ In  many  circumstances  this  case  goes  far  beyond  the  famous 
one  mentioned  by  Boerhaave,  particularly  in  that,  their  telling 
before  when  and  how  they  shall  be  taken  again.  Whoever  can 
account  for  this,  on  natural  principles,  has  my  free  leave  : I can 
not.  I therefore  believe,  if  this  be  in  part  a natural  distemper, 
there  is  something  preternatural  too.  Yet,  supposing  this,  I can 
easily  conceive  Satan  will  so  disguise  his  part  therein,  that  we 
can  not  precisely  determine  which  part  of  the  disorder  is  natural, 
and  which  preternatural.” 

This  mode  of  dealing  with  facts  so  strange  is  not  far  from  being 
sober  and  safe.  It  does  not  appear  that  these  cases  were  in  any 
way  connected  with  religious  feelings.  The  instances  much  re- 
semble some  that  have  of  late  years  been  obtruded  upon  public 
attention  by  the  professors  of  the  mesmeric  art.  Wesley’s  testi 
mony  concerning  facts  of  his  own  knowledge  ought  always  to  be 
received  implicitly  (as,  for  example,  such  as  the  following),  and 
then  candor  will  demand  that  a man  who  not  very  infrequently 
witnessed  what  no  philosophy  can  explain,  may  be  pardoned  if  he 
sometimes  accepts,  too  readily,  the  stories  related  to  him  by 
others.  His  journal  of  January  13,  1743,  has  this  entry: — 

“ Bode  to  Stratford-upon-Avon.  I had  scarce  sat  down  be- 
fore I was  informed  Mrs.  K.,  a middle-aged  woman,  of  Shattery, 
half  a mile  from  Stratford,  had  been  for  many  weeks  last  past  in 
a way  which  nobody  could  understand.  That  she  had  sent  for  a 
minister ; but,  almost  as  soon  as  he  came,  began  roaring  in  so 


304 


NOTES. 


strange  a manner,  her  tongue  at  the  same  time  hanging  out  of 
her  mouth,  and  her  face  being  distorted  in  the  most  terrible  form, 
that  he  cried  out,  ‘ It  is  the  devil,  doubtless  ; — it  is  the  devil 
and  immediately  went  away. 

“ I suppose  this  was  some  unphilosophical  minister ; else  he 
would  have  said, — ‘ Stark  mad  ! send  her  to  Bedlam.’  I asked, 
‘ What  good  do  you  think  I can  do  'I  ’ One  answered,  ‘ I can  not 
tell.’  But  Mrs.  K.  (I  just  relate  what  was  spoken  to  me,  with- 
out passing  any  judgment  upon  it)  * earnestly  desired  that  you 
might  come,  if  you  were  any  where  near,  saying  she  had  seen  you 
in  a dream ; and  should  know  you  immediately.  But  the  devil 
said — those  were  her  own  expressions — I will  tear  thy  throat  out 
before  he  comes.  But  afterward  she  said — his  words  were — if 
he  does  come  I will  let  thee  be  quiet ; — and  thou  shalt  be  as  it 
nothing  ailed  thee,  till  he  is  gone  away.’  A very  odd  kind  of 
madness  this  ! I walked  over  about  noon ; but  when  we  came 
to  the  house,  desired  all  those  who  came  with  me  to  stay  below  ; 
one  showing  me  the  way,  I went  up  straight  to  her  room.  As 
soon  as  I came  to  the  bedside,  she  fixed  her  eyes,  and  said — ‘ You 
are  Mr.  Wesley.  I am  very  well  now,  I thank  God.  Nothing  ails 
me,  only  I am  weak  ! ’ I called  them  up,  and  I began  to  sing — 

Jesu ! thou  hast  bid  us  pray; 

Pray  always,  and  not  faint ; 

With  the  word,  a power  convey, 

To  utter  our  complaint. 

“ After  singing  a verse  or  two,  we  kneeled  down  to  prayer.  I 
had  but  just  begun — my  eyes  being  shut — when  I felt  as  if  I 
had  been  plunged  into  cold  water ; and  immediately  there  was 
such  a roar,  that  my  voice  was  quite  drowned,  though  I spoke  as 
loud  as  I usually  do  to  three  or  four  thousand  people.  However, 
I prayed  on.  She  was  then  reared  up  in  the  bed ; her  whole 
body  moving  at  once,  without  bending  one  joint  or  limb,  just  as 
if  it  were  one  piece  of  stone.  Immediately  after  it  was  writhed 
into  all  kinds  of  postures ; the  same  horrid  yell  continuing  still. 
But  we  left  her  not  till  all  the  symptoms  ceased,  and  she  was,  for 
the  present  at  least,  rejoicing  and  praising  God.” 

Wesley’s  deliberately  expressed  opinion  as  to  the  source  of  the 
outcries  of  converts  (referred  to  pp.  43,  et  seq.)  should  be  brought 
forward  in  fairness. 

March  12th,  1743. — I concluded  my  second  course  of  visit- 
ing, in  which  I inquired  particularly  into  two  things ; first,  the 


NOTES. 


305 


case  of  those  who  had  almost  every  night,  the  last  week,  cried 
out  aloud  during  the  preaching ; secondly,  the  number  of  those 
who  were  separated  from  us,  and  the  reason  and  occasion  of  it. 

“ As  to  the  former,  I found,  first,  that  all  of  them,  I think  not 
one  excepted,  were  persons  in  perfect  health,  had  not  been  sub- 
ject to  fits  of  any  kind,  till  they  were  thus  affected.  Secondly, 
that  this  had  come  upon  every  one  of  them  in  a moment,  without 
any  previous  notice,  while  they  were  either  hearing  the  word  of 
God,  or  thinking  on  what  they  had  heard.  Thirdly,  that  in  that 
moment  they  dropped  down,  lost  all  their  strength,  and  were 
seized  with  violent  pain.  This  they  expressed  in  different  man- 
ners. Some  said  they  felt  just  as  if  a sword  was  running  through 
them  : others  that  a great  weight  lay  upon  them,  as  if  it  would 
squeeze  them  into  the  earth.  Some  said  they  were  quite  choked, 
so  that  they  could  not  breathe  : others,  that  it  was  as  if  their 
heart — as  if  their  inside — as  if  their  whole  body  was  tearing  all 
in  pieces.  These  symptoms  I can  no  more  impute  to  any  na- 
tural cause,  than  to  the  spirit  of  God.  I can  make  no  doubt  that 
it  was  Satan  tearing  them  as  they  were  coming  to  Christ ; and 
hence  proceeded  those  grievous  cries,  whereby  he  might  design 
both  to  discredit  the  work  of  God  and  to  affright  fearful  people 
from  hearing  that  Word  whereby  their  souls  might  be  saved.  I 
found,  fourthly,  that  their  minds  had  been  as  variously  affected 
as  their  bodies.  Of  this  some  could  give  scarce  any  account  at 
all,  which  also  I impute  to  that  wise  Spirit,  purposely  stunning 
and  confounding  as  many  as  he  could,  that  they  might  not  be 
able  to  bewray  his  devices.  Others  gave  a very  clear  and  par- 
ticular account,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  The  word  of 
God  pierced  their  souls,  and  convinced  them  of  inward  as  well  as 
outward  sin.  They  saw  and  felt  the  wrath  of  God  abiding  on 
them,  and  were  afraid  of  his  judgments.  And  here  the  accuser 
came  with  great  power,  telling  them  there  was  no  hope ; they 
were  lost  forever.  The  pains  of  body  then  seized  them  in  a mo- 
ment, and  extorted  those  loud  and  bitter  cries.” 

The  j udgment  Wesley  formed  upon  cases  of  this  kind  was  follow- 
ed by  a practical  conclusion,  therewith  well  consisting,  as  thus  : 

Sunduy,  I'^th.  I went  in  the  morning  in  order  to  speak  sev- 
erally with  the  members  of  the  society  at  Tanfield.  From  the 
terrible  instances  I met  with  here,  and  indeed  in  all  parts  of 
England,  I am  more  and  more  convinced,  that  the  devil  himself 
desires  nothing  more  than  this,  that  the  people  of  any  place  should 


306 


NOTES. 


be  half  awakened,  and  then  left  to  themselves  to  fall  asleep  again. 
Therefore  I determined,  by  the  grace  of  God,  not  to  strike  one 
stroke  in  any  place  where  I can  not  follow  the  blow.” 

To  whatever  cause  or  causes  we  may  please  to  attribute  the 
violence  and  noise  so  often  attending  conversions  under  Wesley’s 
preaching,  he  must  not  be  much  blamed  for  giving  credit  to  them 
as  genuine,  when  they  were  so  very  often  occurring  in  his  pres- 
ence, and  were  issuing  in  a favorable  manner. 

“ At  Weaver’s  Hall  seven  or  eight  persons  were  constrained  to 
roar  aloud,  while  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  was  dividing  asunder 
their  souls  and  spirits,  and  joints  and  marrow.  But  they  were 
all  relieved  upon  prayer,  and  sang  praises  unto  our  God,  and  unto 
the  Lamb  that  liveth  for  ever  and  ever. — Journal,  August,  1739. 

Whitefield,  though  much  less  inclined  than  Wesley  to  view 
these  demonstrations  favorably,  yielded,  in  some  degree,  to  the 
force  of  instances  occurring  in  the  course  of  his  own  ministry. 

“ In  the  afternoon  I was  with  Mr.  Whitefield,  just  come  from 
London,  with  whom  I went  to  Baptist  Mills,  where  he  preached 
concerning  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  all  who  believe  are  to  receive ; 
not  without  a just,  though  severe,  censure,  of  those  who  preach  as 
if  there  were  no  Holy  Ghost.  Saturday,  7th,  I had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  talk  with  him  of  those  outward  signs  which  had  so 
often  accompanied  the  inward  work  of  God.  I found  his  objec- 
tions were  chiefly  grounded  on  gross  misrepresentations  of  matter 
of  fact.  But  the  next  day  he  had  an  opportunity  of  informing 
himself  better.  For  no  sooner  had  he  begun  (in  the  application 
of  his  sermon)  to  invite  all  sinners  to  believe  in  Christ,  than  four 
persons  sunk  down  close  to  him,  almost  in  the  same  moment. 
One  of  them  lay  without  either  sense  or  motion  ; a second  trem- 
bled exceedingly ; the  third  had  strong  convulsions  all  over  his 
body,  but  made  no  noise  unless  by  groans ; the  fourth,  equally 
convulsed,  called  upon  God,  with  strong  cries  and  tears.  From 
this  time,  I trust,  we  shall  all  suffer  God  to  carry  on  his  own 
work  in  the  way  that  pleases  Him.” — Journal,  July,  1739. 

Yes  ; but  the  previous  question  might  well  have  been  asked — 
Do  these  animal  paroxysms  constitute  any  part  whatever  of  “ the 
work  of  God  ? ” Before  the  affirmative  can  be  granted,  it  must 
be  shown  that  the  ministry  of  Christ,  or  of  the  apostles,  was  at- 
tended by  any  such  frightful  seizures.  This  can  never  be  done. 
Nevertheless  it  would  be  easy  to  fill  pages  with  extracts  from 
Wesley’s  Journal,  conclusively  proving  and  exhibiting  the  sound- 


NOTES. 


307 


ness  of  his  judgment,  on  several  occasions,  in  dealing  with  the 
disorders  that  attended  the  Methodistic  movement.  Some  refer- 
ence, at  least,  to  such  instances  of  discretion  may  seem  to  he 
called  for,  in  justice,  as  corrective  of  any  statements  of  a contrary 
import  which  may  have  met  the  reader’s  eye.  Such  an  instance 
occurs  in  the  Journal  of  the  date  October  29th,  1762,  which,  al- 
though too  long  to  cite  (it  occupies  four  pages),  the  writer  would 
not  be  thought  to  have  overlooked. 

Note  to  pages  32  and  86. 

Kingswood  School.  There  is  nothing  pleasing,  but  quite  the 
contrary,  in  what  Wesley  reports  of  the  religious  movements  that 
at  times  took  place  among  the  boys  at  Kingswood.  That  these 
promising  commencements  (so  he  thought  them)  produced  ex- 
ceedingly little  good,  he  candidly  and  frequently  acknowledges. 
“ The  children  are  not  religious  : they  have  not  the  power,  and 
barely  the  form  of  religion.”  Minutes  of  Conference,  1783. 
“ Nor  did  they  even  make  as  much  progress  in  learning  as  other 
boys  ; neither  do  they  improve  in  learning  better  than  at  other 
schools  : no,  nor  yet  so  well.”  This  failure — to  him  a source  of 
bitter  disappointment,  he  attributes  to  the  neglect  of  the  masters 
in  enforcing  his  rules  : — and  what  were  these  rules,  or  the  spirit 
of  them?  He  says,  “they” — the  boys — “ought  never  to  play, 
but  they  do,  every  day  : yea  in  the  school.”  What  wonder  chil- 
dren should  play. in  school,  who  are  forbidden  to  play  out  of  it  ? 
Wesley  had  no  consciousness  toward  human  nature,  except  in  cer- 
tain of  its  aspects.  With  a better  understanding  of  human  na- 
ture, his  excellent  good  sense  would  no  doubt  have  secured,  in 
this  instance,  a fair  measure  of  success ; but  it  did  not : the  school 
continued  to  be  to  him  a perplexity,  and  a vexation,  through  a 
long  course  of  time.  There  is  an  entry  in  his  Journal,  dated 
nearly  thirty  years  earlier  than  the  preceding  Minute  of  Confer- 
ence— namely,  August  24th,  1754,  which  may  properly  be  com- 
pared with  the  one  above  given. 

“ I endeavored  once  more  to  bring  Kingswood  School  into 
order.  Surely  the  importance  of  this  design  is  apparent,  e^en 
from  the  difficulties  that  attend  it.  I have  spent  more  money, 
and  time,  and  care  on  this  than  almost  any  design  I ever  had, 
and  still  it  exercises  all  the  patience  1 have  ; but  it  is  worth  all 
the  labor.” 

Yes,  and  so  good  a design  might  well  have  asked  from  its  ben- 


308 


NOTES. 


evolent  founder  a reconsideration  of  the  principles  on  which  he 
had  so  vainly  labored  to  efiect  it  Every  one  knows  that  the 
management  of  schools,  public  or  private,  is  a labor  peculiarly 
encompassed  with  difficulties  ; nevertheless  they  are  not  abso- 
lutely insurmountable ; that  is  to  say,  when  a true  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  and  an  experienced  skill  or  tact  in  the  treatment 
of  boys,  are  fairly  brought  to  bear  upon  the  task.  Wesley’s 
Kingswood  School  was,  or  he  would  fain  have  made  it,  a minia- 
ture Methodism  ; and  therefore  he  failed  to  render  it,  in  even  an 
ordinary  degree,  efficient  for  the  common  purposes  of  education. 
If,  in  a word,  one  might  give  expression  to  Wesley’s  leading  error, 
it  would  be  in  this  way  : — at  Kingswood  he  treated  children,  as 
if  already  they  were  men  ; in  his  Society  he  treated  men  as  if 
they  must  always  be  children. 

Note  to  Section  on  Field  Preaching,  p.  43. 

It  was  not  without  extreme  reluctance  that  Wesley  followed 
Whitefield’s  example,  and  obeyed  his  own  convictions,  in  the 
practice  of  field-preaching.  His  opinion,  as  recorded  in  his  Jour- 
nal on  this  subject,  has  frequently  been  cited,  and  such  passages 
need  not  be  repeated  here  : in  a word,  he  soon  became  thoroughly 
convinced  that  it  must  be  in  this  mode,  if  at  all,  that  the  Gospel 
is  to  be  brought  to  the  hearing  of  the  people.  “ Thousands  of 
hearers,  rich  and  poor,  received  the  Word  near  the  New  Square, 
with  the  deepest  attention.  This  is  the  way  to  shake  the  trem- 
bling gates  of  Hell.  Still  I see  nothing  can  do  this  so  effectually 
field-preaching'' — Journal,  August  21,  1768.  Again  : — 

“ Monday,  about  noon,  I preached  on  the  Green  at  Clare,  to 
an  exceeding  serious  congregation ; and  in  the  evening  at  Tulla- 
more.  Tuesday,  27th,  I found  a little  increase  to  the  Society; 
but  there  can  not  be  much  without  more  field-preaching.  Wher- 
ever this  is  intermitted,  the  work  of  God  stands  still,  if  it  does 
not  go  back.” — Journal,  June,  1770. 

In  the  Minutes  of  Conference  for  1744,  occur  the  following 
answers  to  queries,  relative  to  the  practice  of  field-preaching  : — 
Have  we  not  used  it  too  sparingly  ? A.  It  seems  we  have  : 

1.  Because  our  call  is,  to  save  that  which  is  lost.  Now  we  can 
not  expect  such  to  seek  us;  therefore  we  should  go  and  seek  them 

2.  Because  we  are  particularly  called,  by  going  into  the  high- 
ways and  hedges  (which  none  else  will),  to  compel  them  to  come 
in.  3.  Because  that  reason  against  it  is  not  good  : * The  house 


NOTES. 


309 


will  hold  all  that  come.’  The  house  may  hold  all  that  come  to 
the  house,  but  not  all  that  would  come  to  the  field.” 

“ In  the  evening  I came  to  Cork,  and  at  seven  was  surprised 
at  the  unusual  largeness  of  the  congregation.  I had  often  been 
grieved  at  the  smallness  of  the  congregation  here ; and  it  could 
be  no  other  while  we  cooped  ourselves  up  in  the  house.  But  now 
the  alarm  is  sounded  abroad,  the  people  flock  from  all  quarters. 
So  plain  it  is,  that  field-preaching  is  the  most  efiectual  way  of 

overturning  Satan’s  kingdom At  seven  in  the  evening  I 

stood  in  a vacant  place  near  Blackpool,  famous  from  time  im- 
memorial for  all  manner  of  wickedness,  for  riot  in  particular,  and 
cried  aloud,  * Why  will  ye  die,  O House  of  Israel.’  Abundance 
of  papists  gathered  at  a distance ; but  they  drew  nearer  and 
nearer,  till  nine  parts  in  ten  mingled  with  the  congregation,  and 
were  all  attention.  Surely  this  is  the  way  to  spread  religion,  to 
publish  it  in  the  face  of  the  sun.” — Journal^  June  18,  1763. 

Note  to  page  85. 

Many  passages  occur  in  the  Journals,  and  in  the  Minutes  of 
Conference,  expressive  of  Wesley’s  earnest  desire  to  impart  to  his 
system  of  popular  instruction  a deeper  tone,  and  to  send  piety 
home  from  the  “preaching  house”  to  the  families  of  his  people. 
That  there  was  great  and  urgent  need  of  reform  in  this  respect, 
he  thoroughly  understood,  and  he  very  often  expresses  his  sense  of 
it  in  his  usual  emphatic  style.  Wesleyan  Methodism  did  but 
very  imperfectly  Christianize  Wesleyan  families.  He  knew  this, 
and  he  acknowledged  it : so  far  therefore  the  allegations,  to  this 
effect,  which  the  writer  has  repeatedly  advanced,  are  borne  out. 
But  Wesley  labored  to  bring  in  a remedy;  and  perhaps  his  en- 
deavors were  not  wholly  without  effect,  although  the  same  sort 
of  complaint  meets  us  to  the  end. 

On  this  ground,  then,  the  writer  would  render  justice  to  Wes- 
ley, while  he  is  compelled  to  adhere  to  the  statements  he  has 
made  ; nor  must  he  be  blamed,  on  this  ground,  seeing  that 
Wesley,  at  a time  when  his  system  had  been  many  years  in  oper- 
ation— 1766,  records  his  deliberate  opinion  of  its  influence  upon 
the  domestic  habits  of  his  people,  in  terms  such  as  these  : — 
“Family  religion  is  shamefully  wanting,  and  almost  in  every 
branch.  And  the  Methodists  in  general  will  be  little  better  till 
we  take  quite  another  course  with  them.  For  what  avails  public 
f reaching  alone j though  we  could  preach  like  angels.” 


310 


NOTES. 


This  is  an  acknowledgment  conclusively  proving  that,  in 
Wesley’s  matured  judgment,  a society  framed  for  the  purpose  of 
making  and  retaining  converts,  wants  that  which  is  of  the  high- 
est importance  and  necessity,  in  giving  full  effect  to  Christianity. 
“ Religion  is  a very  superficial  thing  among  us.”  Such  were  his 
often  repeated  confessions  and  complaints.  The  fact  he  attri- 
butes to  causes  short  of  those  whence  actually  it  resulted.  A 
ministry  itinerating  always,  and  therefore  never  competent  to 
discharge  pastoral  functions — a crude  theology,  adapted  indeed  to 
the  field  preacher’s  purpose,  and  to  nothing  else,  and  a style  of 
address  to  the  people  that  tended  always  more  to  produce  excite- 
ment than  movement,  or  than  progress : — such  surely  were  the 
causes  of  this  characteristic  of  Wesleyan  Methodism — its  shal- 
lowness. 


Note  to  page  70. 

The  following  passages  from  Wesley’s  Journal,  of  different 
dates,  might  be  compared  with  what  occurs  so  plentifully  in  the 
biographies  of  the  Romish  saints,  and  which  at  a glance  would 
seem  to  be  much  of  the  same  quality.  The  difference,  however, 
is  real,  and  it  is  such  as  indicates  the  very  different  issue  of  an 
ascetic  course,  in  the  one  case,  when  the  light  of  scriptural  piety 
was  gradually  breaking  in  upon  the  mind — and  in  the  other, 
when  a thick  darkness  encompassed  the  ascetic  on  every  side. 

“ October  20 thy  1735.  Believing  the  denying  ourselves  even 
in  the  smallest  instances,  might,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  be  help- 
ful to  us,  we  wholly  left  off  the  use  of  flesh  and  wine,  and  con- 
fined ourselves  to  vegetable  food,  chiefly  rice  and  biscuit.” 

“ December  Ithy  Sunday,  Finding  nature  did  not  require  so 
frequent  supplies  as  we  had  been  accustomed  to,  we  agreed  to 
leave  off  suppers,  from  doing  which  we  have  hitherto  found  no 
inconvenience.” 

“ March  30^/^,  1736.  Mr.  Ingham,  coming  from  Frederica, 
brought  me  letters  pressing  me  to  go  thither.  The  next  day,  Mr. 
Delamotte  and  I began  to  try  whether  life  might  not  as  well  be 
sustained  by  one  sort,  as  by  variety  of  food.  We  chose  to  make 
the  experiment  with  bread,  and  were  never  more  vigorous  and 
healthy  than  while  we  tasted  nothing  else.  ‘ Blessed  are  the 
'pure  in  heart ! ’ who,  whether  they  eat  or  drink,  or  whatever 
they  do,  have  no  end  therein  but  to  please  God.  To  them  all 
things  are  pure.  Every  creature  is  good  to  them,  and  nothing 


NOTES, 


311 


to  be  rejected.  But  let  them,  who  know  and  feel  that  they  are 
not  thus  pure,  use  every  help  and  remove  every  hindrance ; al- 
ways remembering.  He  that  despiseth  little  things,  shall  fall  by 
little  and  little'^ 

Ju7ie  ^th,  1737.  I began  visiting  the  prisons,  assisting  the 
poor  and  sick  in  town,  and  doing  what  other  good  I could,  by  my 
presence  or  my  little  fortune,  to  the  bodies  and  souls  of  all  men. 
To  this  end  I abridged  myself  of  all  superfluities,  and  many  that 
are  called  necessaries  of  life.  I soon  became  a by-word  for  so 
doing,  and  I rejoiced  that  my  name  teas  cast  out  as  evil.  The 
next  spring  I began  observing  the  Wednesday  and  Friday  fasts, 
commonly  observed  in  the  ancient  Church ; tasting  no  food  till 
three  in  the  afternoon.  And  now  I knew  not  how  to  go  any 
farther.  I diligently  strove  against  all  sin.  I omitted  no  sort  of 
self-denial  which  I thought  lawful.  I carefully  used,  both  in 
public  and  in  private,  all  the  means  of  grace  at  all  opportunities. 
I omitted  no  occasion  of  doing  good ; I for  that  reason  suffered 
evil.  And  all  this  I knew  to  be  nothing  unless  it  was  directed 
toward  inward  holiness.  Accordingly  this,  the  image  of  God,  was 
what  I aimed  at  in  all,  by  doing  his  will,  not  my  own.  Yot 
when  after  continuing  some  years  in  this  course,  I apprehended 
myself  to  be  near  death,  I could  not  find  that  all  this  gave  me 
any  comfort,  or  any  assurance  of  acceptance  with  God.  At  this 
1 was  then  not  a little  surprised,  not  imagining  I had  been  all 
this  time  building  on  the  sand — nor  considering  that  ‘ other  foun- 
dation can  no  man  lay  than  that  which  is  laid  by  God,  even 
Christ  Jesus  ^ 

“ 1736.  On  Monday  9th,  and  the  following  days,  I reflected 
much  on  that  vain  desire,  which  had  pursued  me  for  so  many 
years,  of  being  in  solitude,  in  order  to  be  a Christian.  I have 
now,  thought  I,  solitude  enough ; but  am  I,  therefore,  the  nearer 
being  a Christian  ? Not  if  Jesus  Christ  be  the  model  of  Christi- 
anity. I doubt,  indeed,  I am  much  nearer  that  mystery  of  Satan 
which  some  writers  affect  to  call  by  that  name.  So  near,  that 
I had  probably  sunk  wholly  into  it,  had  not  the  great  mercy  of 
God  just  now  thrown  me  upon  reading  St.  Cyprian’s  works  : ‘ Oh 
my  soul,  come  not  thou  into  their  secret,  stand  thou  in  the  good 
old  paths. ^ ” 

Wesley  here  refers  to  that  first  principle  of  the  ascetic  life, 
which  renders  it  a condensed  selfishness,  or  egotism. 


312 


NOTES. 


Notes  illustrative  of  the  Four  Sections  on  Wesleyan  Method-^ 
ism,  from  p.  188  top.  268. 

To  those  who  stand  unconnected  with  Wesleyan  Methodism, 
but  who  are  conversant  with  Wesley’s  Journal,  Letters,  and 
Tracts,  and  with  the  Minutes  of  Conference,  it  must  seem  super- 
fluous to  occupy  a page  in  establishing  a fact  so  conspicuously 
certain  as  this — namely,  that,  in  constituting  his  Society,  and  in 
conferring  upon  a hundred  of  his  preachers  an  absolute  and  un- 
mitigated spiritual  sovereignty,  he  did — what  a man  may  do  with 
his  own,  as  for  example  with  a charity,  created  by  himself,  and 
endowed  from  his  own  funds — but  what  no  Christian  man  could 
dare  attempt  who  was  knowingly  constituting  a Church,  and 
setting  on  foot  a scheme  of  government,  for  perpetuity,  on  princi- 
ples consonant  with  those  which  are  obviously  deducible  from  the 
tenor  of  the  apostolic  writings. 

From  the  severe  blame  that  would  be  involved  in  the  supposi- 
tion that  Wesley  contemplated,  and  that  he  aimed  indirectly  to 
bring  about  a plan  of  this  comprehensive  kind — a blame  injuri- 
ous alike  to  his  reputation  for  wisdom,  and  for  simplicity  of  pur- 
pose, he  stands  clearly  and  wholly  exempt,  this  exculpation 
resting,  as  it  does,  upon  the  ground  of  those  many  passages,  scat- 
tered through  the  documents  above  mentioned,  which  show  what, 
in  fact,  were  his  views,  and  his  intentions,  in  giving  form  and 
consistency  to  his  Society.  Of  these  passages  a sample  only  is 
now  presented  to  the  reader  to  whom  the  subject  is  not  familiar. 
A few  sentences,  extracted  from  the  Minutes  of  Conference,  will 
best  introduce  these  extracts.  It  is  well  known  that  Wesley, 
from  the  first  to  the  last,  shrunk  from  the  idea  of  separation  from 
the  Established  Church.  In  a Conference  held  five  years  after 
the  commencement  of  Methodism,  these  questions  were  put  and 
answered. 

“ Wednesday,  June  21th,  11^^.  Q.  6.  How  far  is  it  our  duty 
to  obey  the  bishops  ? A.  In  all  things  indifferent ; and  on  this 
ground  of  obeying  them,  we  should  observe  the  canons  so  far  as 
we  can  with  a safe  conscience.  Q.  7.  Do  we  separate  from  the 
Church  ] A.  We  conceive  not.  We  hold  communion  there- 
with, for  conscience  sake,  by  constantly  attending  both  the  Word 
preached  and  the  sacraments  administered  therein.  Q.  9.  But 
do  you  not  weaken  the  Church  ? A.  Do  not  they  who  ask  this, 
by  the  Church,  mean  themselves?  We  do  not  purposely  weaken 


NOTES. 


313 


any  man’s  hands.  But  accidentally  we  may  thus  far ; they  who 
come  to  know  the  truth  by  us,  will  esteem  such  as  deny  it  less 
than  they  did  before.  Q*  entail  a schism  on  the 

Church  ? i.  e.  Is  it  not  probable  that  your  hearers,  after  your 
death,  will  be  scattered  into  all  sects  and  parties  ? or  that  they 
will  form  themselves  into  a distinct  sect?  A.  1.  We  are  per- 
suaded the  body  of  our  hearers  will,  even  after  our  death,  remain 
in  the  Church,  unless  they  be  thrust  out.  2.  We  believe,  not- 
withstanding, either  they  will  be  thrust  out,  or  that  they  will 
leaven  the  whole  Church.  3.  We  do,  and  will  do,  all  we  can, 
to  prevent  these  consequences,  which  are  supposed  likely  to  hap- 
pen after  our  death.  4.  But  we  can  not,  with  a good  conscience, 
neglect  the  present  opportunity  of  saving  souls  while  we  live,  for 
fear  of  consequences  which  may  possibly  or  probably  happen  after 
we  are  dead.” 

While  making  these  professions,  in  so  formal  a manner,  Wes- 
ley could  not — consistently  with  his  repute  as  a simple-minded 
and  ingenuous  man — go  about  so  to  frame  his  Society  as  should 
at  once  facilitate,  and  suggest,  to  his  followers,  a separation — a 
schism.  Again — 

‘‘  Q.  What  may  we  reasonably  believe  to  be  God’s  design,  in 
raising  up  the  preachers  called  Methodists  ? A,  To  reform  the 
nation,  more  particularly  the  Church ; to  spread  scriptural  holi- 
ness over  the  land.” 

If  Wesley  thought  himself  the  head  of  a Church,  not  the 
leader  of  a merely  voluntary  association,  then  did  he  assume  an 
autocratic  power  over  his  ministers  of  the  most  absolute  kind. 
Among  the  Rules  of  a “Helper” — a superior  minister  in  fact, 
this  is  one — too  nearly  resembling,  in  its  tone,  Loyola’s  Noted 
Letter  on  Obedience  : — “ 2.  Act  in  all  things,  not  according  to 
your  own  will,  but  as  a son  in  the  Gospel  (i.  e.  Wesley’s  son) ; as 
such,  it  is  your  part  to  employ  your  time,  in  the  manner  which 
we  direct : partly  in  preaching,  and  visiting  the  flock  from  house 
to  house  ; partly  in  reading,  meditation  and  prayer.  Above  all, 
if  you  labor  with  us  in  our  Lord’s  vineyard,  it  is  needful  that  you 
should  do  that  'part  of  the  work  which  we  advise,  at  those  times 
and  places  which  we  judge  most  for  his  glory.” 

In  the  Conference  of  1749,  the  phrase  “ Mother  Church,”  as 
applied  incidentally  to  the  Central  Society  in  London,  occurs ; 
but  a few  lines  on,  in  answer  to  the  question,  “ How  should  an 
assistant  be  qualified  for  this  charge  ?”  it  is  answered,  ' and  by 

O 


314 


NOTES. 


loving  the  Church  of  England,  and  resolving  not  to  separate  from 
it.”  The  term  “ Mother  Church”  did  not,  therefore,  mean  more 
than  a centre  of  management  for  the  societies  scattered  over  the 
country.  Again,  further  on,  it  is  asked  : “Is  there  any  other  ad- 
vice which  you  would  give  the  assistants  ? A.  Yes.  In  every 
place  exhort  those  who  were  brought  up  in  the  Church,  con- 
stantly to  attend  its  service  : and  in  visiting  the  classes,  ask  every 
one, — Do  ^ou  go  to  Church  as  often  as  you  ever  did  ? Set  the 
example  yourself,  and  immediately  alter  any  plan  that  interferes 
therewith.  Is  there  not  a cause  for  this  ? Are  not  we,  una- 
wares, by  little  and  little,  tending  to  a separation  from  the 
Church  ? O remove  every  tendency  thereto  with  all  diligence. 
1.  Let  all  our  preachers  go  to  Church.  2.  Let  all  our  people  go 
constantly.  3.  Eeceive  the  Sacrament  at  every  opportunity. 
4.  Warn  all  against  niceness  in  hearing,  a great  and  prevailing 
evil.  5.  Warn  them  likewise  against  despising  the  prayers  of  the 
Church.  6.  Against  calling  our  Society  a Church,  or  the  Church 
7.  Against  calling  our  Preachers,  Ministers  ; our  houses,  meeting 
houses;  (call  them  plain  preaching  houses).  8.  Do  not  license 
them  as  such.  9.  Do  not  license  yourself  till  you  are  constrain- 
ed ; and  then,  not  as  a Dissenter,  but  a Methodist  preacher. 

In  the  Conference  of  1766,  and  after  the  lapse  of  seventeen 
years,  Wesley  again  earnestly  rejects  the  imputation  of  intending 
to  create  a separation  from  the  Church,  and  repudiates  the  desig- 
nation Dissenter.  P.  57. 

“ Are  we  not  then  Dissenters  ? We  are  irregular ; 1st.  By 
calling  sinners  to  repentance,  in  all  places  of  God’s  dominion. 
2d.  By  frequently  using  extemporary  prayer.  Yet  we  are  not 
Dissenters,  in  the  only  sense  which  our  law  acknowledges  : — 
namely,  persons  who  believe  it  is  sinful  to  attend  the  service  of 
the  Church  : for  we  do  attend  it  at  all  opportunities. 

“We  will  not,  dare  not,  separate  from  the  Church,  for  the 
reasons  given  several  years  ago.  We  are  not  Seceders,  nor  do 
we  bear  any  resemblance  to  them.  We  set  out  upon  quite  op- 
posite principles.  The  Seceders  laid  the  very  foundation  of  their 
work  in  judging  and  condemning  others.  We  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  our  work,  in  judging  and  condemning  ourselves.  They 
begin  every  where  with  showing  their  hearers  how  fallen  the 
Church  and  ministers  are.  We  begin  every  where  with  show- 
ing our  hearers  how  fallen  they  are  themselves. 

“ And  as  we  are  not  dissenters  from  the  Church  now,  so  wo 


NOTES. 


315 


will  do  nothing  willingly,  which  tends  to  a separation  from  it. 
Therefore  let  every  assistant  so  order  his  circuit,  that  no  preacher 
may  be  hindered  from  attending  the  Church  more  than  two  Sun- 
days in  the  month.  Never  make  light  of  going  to  Church,  either 
by  word  or  deed.  Remember  Mr.  Hook,  a very  eminent  and  a 
zealous  Papist.  When  I asked  him,  ‘ Sir,  what  do  you  for  public 
worship  here,  where  you  have  no  Romish  sermon  ? ’ He  answer- 
ed : ‘ Sir,  I am  so  fuliy  convinced  it  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to 
worship  God  in  public,  that  I go  to  Church  every  Sunday.  If  I 
can  not  have  such  worship  as  I would,  I will  have  such  worship 
as  I can.’ 

“ But  some  may  say,  ‘ Our  own  service  is  public  worship.’ 
Yes,  in  a sense : but  not  such  as  supersedes  the  Church  Service. 
We  never  designed  it  should.  We  have  a hundred  times  pro- 
fessed the  contrary.  It  presupposes  public  prayer  like  the  ser- 
mons at  the  university.  Therefore  I have  over  and  over  advised  : 
use  no  long  sprayer,  either  before  or  after  sermon.  Therefore,  I 
myself  frequently  use  only  a collect,  and  never  enlarge  in  prayer, 
unless  at  Intercession,  or  on  a Watch-night,  or  on  some  extraor- 
dinary occasion.  If  it  were  designed  to  be  instead  of  Church 
Service,  it  would  be  essentially  defective.  For  it  seldom  has  the 
four  grand  parts  of  public  prayer  ; deprecation,  petition,  interces- 
sion, and  thanksgiving.  Neither  is  it,  even  on  the  Lord’s  Day, 
concluded  with  the  Lord’s  Supper.  The  hour  for  it  on  that  day, 
unless  where  there  is  some  peculiar  reason  for  a variation,  should 
be  five  in  the  morning,  as  well  as  five  in  the  evening.  Why 
should  we  make  God.’s  day  the  shortest  of  the  seven  ? But  if 
the  people  put  ours  in  the  place  of  the  Church  Service,  we  hnrt 
them  that  stay  with  us,  and  ruin  them  that  leave  us.  For  then 
they  will  go  nowhere,  but  lounge  the  Sabbath  away  without  any 
public  worship  at  all. 

“ I advise,  therefore,  all  the  Methodists  in  England  and  Ire- 
land, who  have  been  brought  up  in  the  Church,  constantly  to 
attend  the  service  of  the  Church,  at  least  every  Lord’s  Day.” 

Wesley’s  own  account  of  the  origin  of  his  Power,  as  occurring 
in  the  Minutes  of  1766,  and  elsewhere,  has  so  frequently  been 
brought  forward  that  it  need  not  again  be  cited.  It  is  conclusive 
to  this  effect,  that  the  circumstances  attending  the  rise  of  Meth- 
odism threw  into  his  hands  such  a control  over  preachers  and 
people  as  is  far  too  absolute  for  any  uninspired  man  to  pretend  to, 
or  lawfully  to  exercise — except  for  some  temporary  purpose,  and 


316 


NOTES. 


on  the  ground  of  some  urgent  necessity.  One  paragraph,  contain- 
ing the  pith  of  several,  may  properly  he  brought  forward. 

“ Observe,  I myself  sent  for  these  (preachers)  of  my  own  free 
choice  ; and  I sent  for  them  to  advise,  not  govern  me.  Neither 
did  I at  any  of  those  times  divest  myself  of  any  part  of  that  power 
above  described,  which  the  providence  of  God  had  cast  upon  me, 
Vvdthout  any  design  or  choice  of  mine.  What  is  that  power  1 
It  is  a power  of  admitting  into,  and  excluding  from,  the  societies 
under  my  care  : of  choosing  and  removing  stewards ; of  receiv- 
ing, or  not  receiving,  helpers  ; of  appointing  them  when,  where, 
and  how,  to  help  me  ; and  of  desiring  any  of  them  to  meet  me 
when  I see  good.  And  as  it  was  merely  in  obedience  to  the  pro- 
vidence of  God,  and  for  the  good  of  the  people,  that  I at  first 
accepted  this  power,  which  I never  sought,  nay,  a hundred  times 
labored  to  throw  off^ ; so  it  is  on  the  same  consideration,  not  for 
profit,  honor,  or  pleasure,  that  I use  it  at  this  day.  But  several 
gentlemen  are  much  offended  at  my  having  so  much  potver.  My 
answer  to  them  is  this  : — I did  not  seek  any  part  of  this  power. 
It  came  upon  me  unawares.  But  when  it  was  come,  not  daring 
to  bury  that  talent,  I used  it  to  the  best  of  my  judgment. 

“Yet  I never  was  fond  of  it ; I always  did,  and  do  now,  bear 
it  as  my  burden ; the  burden  which  God  lays  upon  me,  and  there- 
fore I dare  not  yet  lay  it  down.  But  if  you  can  tell  me  any  one, 
or  any  five  men,  to  whom  I may  transfer  this  burden,  who  can 
and  will  do  just  what  I do  now,  I will  heartily  thank  both  them 
and  you.’' 

In  this,  and  much  more  to  the  same  effect,  there  is  no  indica- 
tion leading  to  the  belief  that  Wesley  ever  thought  of  his  people 
as  coming  into  the  position  of  instructed  Christian  men,  to  whom 
mighlfbe  assigned  the  functions  proper  to  such,  and  which  un 
questionably  were  undertaken  and  discharged  by  the  laity  of  the 
Apostolic  Churches.  In  answer  to  the  allegation — “ this  (power 
which  you  exercise)  is  arbitrary  power,  this  is  no  less  than  mak- 
ing yourself  a pope,”  he  says,  “ If  by  arbitrary  power,  you  mean 
a power  which  I exercise  singly,  without  any  colleagues  therein, 
this  is  certainly  true ; but  I see  no  hurt  in  it.  Arbitrary,  in  this 
sense,  is  a very  harmless  word.  If  you  mean  unjust,  unreason- 
able, or  tyrannical,  then  it  is  not  true.  As  to  the  other  branch 
of  the  charge,  it  carries  no  face  of  truth.  The  pope  affirms,  that 
every  Christian  must  do  all  he  bids,  and  believe  all  he  says,  under 
pain  of  damnation.  I never  affirmed  any  thing  that  bears  any, 


NOTES. 


317 


the  most  distant,  resemblance  to  this.  All  I affirm  is,  the  preach- 
ers who  choose  to  labor  with  me,  choose  to  serve  me  as  sons  in 
the  gospel ; and  the  people  who  choose  to  be  under  my  care, 
choose  to  be  so  on  the  same  terms  they  were  at  first.  Therefore 
all  talk  of  this  kind  is  highly  injurious  to  me^  who  bear  the  bur- 
den merely  for  your  sakes.  And  it  is  exceedingly  mischievous  to 
the  people,  tending  to  confound  their  understandings,  and  to  fill  their 
hearts  with  evil  surmisings,  and  unkind  tempers  toward  me^  to 
whom  they  really  owe  more,  for  taking  all  this  load  upon  me,  for 
exercising  this  very  power,  for  shackling  myself  in  this  manner, 
than  for  all  my  preaching  put  together.  Because  preaching 
twice  or  thrice  a day  is  no  burden  to  me  at  all ; but  the  care  of 
all  the  preachers,  and  all  the  people,  is  a burden  indeed.” 

In  the  Conference  of  1769,  August  ^th,  Wesley  read  a paper, 
which  he  had  no  doubt  carefully  prepared,  and  which  shows  that, 
in  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  his  society  should  no  longer 
be  cemented  by  means  of  his  personal  influence,  the  measures  he 
propounded  to  his  preachers  did  not  include  at  that  time  consti- 
tutional changes,  intended  to  bring  the  body  of  preachers  and  the 
people  into  any  other  relationship  than  that  which  had  hitherto 
subsisted  between  them. 

“ My  dear  Brethren — It  has  long  been  my  desire  that  all 
those  ministers  of  our  Church,  who  believe  and  preach  salva- 
tion by  faith,  might  cordially  agree  between  themselves,  and 
not  hinder,  but  help  one  another.  After  occasionally  pressing 
this  in  private  conversation,  wherever  I had  opportunity,  I wrote 
down  my  thoughts  upon  the  head,  and  sent  them  to  each  in  a 
letter.  Out  of  fifty  or  sixty  to  whom  I wrote,  only  three  vouch- 
safed me  an  answer.  So  I gave  this  up.  I can  do  no  more. 
They  are  a rope  of  sand,  and  such  they  will  continue. 

But  it  is  otherwise  with  the  Traveling  Preachers  in  our 
connection.  You  are  at  present  one  body ; you  act  in  concert 
with  each  other,  and  by  united  counsels.  And  now  is  the  time 
to  consider  what  can  be  done,  in  order  to  continue  this  union. 
Indeed  as  long  as  I live,  there  will  be  no  great  difficulty  : I am, 
under  God,  a centre  of  union  to  all  our  Traveling,  as  well  as 
Local  Preachers.  They  all  know  me  and  my  communication. 
They  all  love  me  for  my  work’s  sake ; and,  therefore,  were  it 
only  out  of  regard  to  me,  they  will  continue  connected  with  each 
other.  But  by  what  means  may  this  connection  be  preserved, 


318 


NOTES. 


when  God  removes  me  from  you  ? I take  it  for  granted  it  can 
not  be  preserved  by  any  means,  between  those  who  have  not  a 
single  eye.  Those  who  aim  at  any  thing  but  the  glory  of  God, 
and  the  salvation  of  men ; who  desire  or  seek  any  earthly  thing, 
whether  honor,  profit,  or  ease,  will  not  continue  in  the  connection : 
it  will  not  answer  their  design.  Some  of  them,  perhaps  a fourth 
of  the  whole  number,  will  procure  preferment  in  the  Church. 
Others  will  turn  Independents,  and  get  separate  congregations, 
like  John  Edwards  and  Charles  Skelton.  Lay  your  accounts 
with  this,  and  be  not  surprised  if  some,  you  do  not  suspect,  be  of 
this  number. 

“ But  what  method  can  be  taken  to  preserve  a firm  union  be- 
tween those  who  choose  to  remain  together  ? Perhaps  you  might 
take  some  such  steps  as  these  : On  notice  of  my  death,  let  all  the 
preachers  in  England  and  Ireland  repair  to  London  within  six 
weeks  : Let  them  seek  God  by  solemn  fasting  and  prayer  : Let 
them  draw  up  articles  of  agreement,  to  be  signed  by  those  who 
choose  to  act  in  concert : Let  those  be  dismissed  who  do  not 
choose  it,  in  the  most  friendly  manner  possible  : 

“ Let  them  choose,  by  votes,  a Committee  of  three,  five,  or 
seven,  each  of  whom  is  to  be  Moderator  in  his  turn  : Let  the 
Committee  do  what  I do  now : propose  Preachers  to  be  tried,  ad- 
mitted, or  excluded.  Fix  the  place  of  each  Preacher  for  the 
ensuing  year,  and  the  time  of  the  next  Conference. 

“ Can  any  thing  be  done  now,  in  order  to  lay  a foundation  for 
this  future  union  ? Would  it  not  be  well,  for  any  that  are  will- 
ing, to  sign  some  articles  of  agreement  before  God  calls  me 
hence  ? Suppose  something  like  these  : 

“We  whose  names  are  under  written,  being  thoroughly  con- 
vinced of  the  necessity  of  a close  union  between  those  whom  God 
is  pleased  to  use  as  instruments  in  this  glorious  work,  in  order  to 
preserve  this  union  between  ourselves,  are  resolved,  God  being 
our  helper, 

1.  To  devote  ourselves  entirely  to  God;  denying  ourselves, 
taking  up  our  cross  daily,  steadily  aiming  at  one  thing,  to  save 
our  own  souls,  and  them  that  hear  us. 

2.  To  preach  the  old  Methodist  doctrines^  and  no  other,  con- 
tained in  the  Minutes  of  Conference. 

3 . To  observe  and  enforce  the  whole  Methodist  discipliney  laid 
down  in  the  said  Minutes  ! 

“ The  Preachers  then  desired  Mr.  Wesley  to  extract  the  most 


NOTES. 


319 


material  part  of  the  Minutes,  and  send  a copy  to  each  Assistant, 
which  he  might  communicate  to  all  the  Preachers  in  his  Circuit, 
to  be  seriously  considered. 

'‘Our  meeting  was  then  concluded  with  solemn  prayer.’^ 

Five  years  later  this  engagement  was  repeated  in  the  same 
terms. 

In  the  year  1785,  Wesley  addressed  a letter  to  the  preachers 
constituting  the  legal  body,  according  to  the  “ Deed  of  Declara- 
tion,” which  may  be  regarded  as  expressing  his  matured  inten- 
tion as  to  the  constitution  of  his  society,  and,  therefore,  as  showing 
that  he  entertained  no  idea  of  granting  to  the  people  any  consti- 
tutional privilege,  or,  indeed,  that  he  recognized  their  existence 
in  any  such  sense.  This  letter  was  brought  forward,  and  was 
entered  upon  the  minutes,  immediately  after  Wesley’s  death. 

“Manchester;  Tuesday,  July  26,  1791. 

“A  copy  of  a letter  from  the  Rev.  John  Wesley  to  the  Conference. 

‘ To  the  Methodist  Conference. 

Chester,  April  7th,  1785. 

‘ My  dear  Brethren, — Some  of  our  traveling  preachers  have 
expressed  a fear,  that,  after  my  decease,  you  would  exclude  them 
either  from  preaching  in  connection  with  you,  or  from  some  other 
privileges  which  they  now  enjoy. 

‘ I know  no  other  way  to  prevent  any  such  inconvenience 
than  to  leave  these,  my  last  words,  with  you.  I beseech  you,  by 
the  mercies  of  God,  that  you  never  avail  yourselves  of  the  “ Deed 
of  Declaration,”  to  assume  any  superiority  over  your  brethren;  but 
let  all  things  go  on,  among  those  itinerants  who  choose  to  remain 
together,  exactly  in  the  same  manner  as  when  I was  with  you, 
so  far  as  circumstances  will  permit.  In  particular,  I beseech 
you,  if  you  ever  loved  me,  and  if  you  now  love  God  and  your 
brethren,  to  have  no  respect  of  persons  in  stationing  the  preach- 
ers, in  choosing  children  for  Kingswood  School,  in  disposing  of 
the  yearly  contribution  and  the  preachers’  fund,  or  any  other  pub- 
lic money  ; but  do  all  things  with  a single  eye,  as  I have  done 
from  the  beginning.  Go  on  thus,  doing  all  things  without  preju- 
dice or  partiality,  and  God  will  be  with  you  even  to  the  end. 

‘ John  Wesley.’ 

“N.B. — The  Conference  have  unanimously  resolved,  that  all 
the  preachers  who  are  in  full  connection  with  them,  shall  enjoy 


820 


NOTES. 


every  privilege  that  the  members  of  the  Conference  enjoy,  agree- 
ably to  the  above- written  letter  of  our  venerable  deceased  Father 
in  the  Gospel.  It  may  be  expected  that  the  Conference  make 
some  observations  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Wesley ; but  they  find 
themselves  utterly  inadequate  to  express  their  ideas  and  feelings 
on  this  awful  and  affecting  event.  Their  souls  do  truly  mourn 
for  their  great  loss ; and  they  trust  they  shall  give  the  most  sub- 
stantial proofs  of  their  veneration  for  the  memory  of  their  most 
esteemed  father  and  friend,  by  endeavoring,  with  great  humility 
and  diffidence,  to  follow  and  imitate  him  in  doctrine,  discipline, 
and  life.” 

It  may  seem  superfluous  to  adduce  further  evidence  in  proof  of 
what  the  writer  has  repeatedly  affirmed  in  the  course  of  this 
volume,  and  showing  that  Wesley  abjured  the  imputation  of  in- 
tending to  draw  off  his  people  from  the  Church.  This  point  might 
be  placed  beyond  all  doubt  by  many  extracts  from  his  writings. 
These  same  passages  would,  of  themselves,  sustain  the  inference 
that  he  never  entertained  the  thought  of  constructing  a Church ; 
but  we  need  not  rest  upon  an  inference  merely,  how  inevitable 
soever  it  may  be,  for  we  have  his  explicit  declaration  to  this  ef- 
fect. In  the  Tract  “ against  separation  from  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land” occurs  a passage  which  is  most  conclusive  to  this  effect. 
The  8th  reason  against  any  such  separation  is  this,  that  then  the 
Methodistic  Society  must  be  framed  upon  a different  model,  which 
would  involve  a very  difficult  task — a task  to  which  Wesley  mod- 
estly thinks  neither  himself  nor  his  friends  competent. 

“ 8.  Because  to  form  the  plan  of  a new  Church  would  require 
infinite  time  and  care  (which  might  be  far  more  profitably  be- 
stowed), with  much  more  wisdom  and  greater  depth  and  exten- 
siveness of  thought  than  any  of  us  are  masters  of” 

But  if  so — if  in  Wesley’s  deliberately  expressed  opinion,  as  we 
find  it  here  and  elsewhere,  the  Institution  of  which  he  was  the 
author,  was  far  from  being  in  his  view  a Church — and  if  he 
solemnly  rejected  the  imputation  of  having  framed  it  with  the 
reserved  design  of  bringing  his  people  into  an  independent  and 
separate  ecclesiastical  condition — if  so,  we  must  think  that  there 
was  an  error  on  the  part  of  those  who,  when  they  found  that  they 
could  not  turn  aside  the  course  of  events  which,  at  length,  ren- 
dered this  separation  inevitable — did  not,  at  an  early  time,  set 
about  the  work  of  so  reconstructing  Wesley anism  as  might  suffice 


NOTES. 


321 


for  introducing  into  it  that  rudiment  of  Church  organization 
which  would  place  the  people  and  their  ministers  in  a true  rela- 
tive position  ? 

In  the  four  sections  on  Wesleyan  Methodism  mention  has  been 
made,  repeatedly,  of  what  is  called  the  Deed  of  Declaration, 
which,  in  fact,  is,  in  a legal  sense,  the  basement-work  of  the 
Wesleyan  structure,  and  to  which  an  appeal  is  always  made  by 
the  opposed  parties,  within  the  Society.  This  Deed  is  of  con- 
siderable length,  and  the  reader  who  is  not  a Wesleyan  Method- 
ist, and  yet  who  would  wish  to  know  something  of  the  purport  of 
so  important  a document,  may  be  content  with  an  abstract  of  its 
clauses,  such  as  shall  sufficiently  place  before  him  its  meaning, 
viewed  as  the  basis  of  a legalized  corporation. 

**  To  all  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,  John  Wesley, 
late  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  but  now  of  the  City 
Road,  London,  Clerk,  sendeth  greeting. 

Whereas  divers  buildings,  commonly  called  chapels,  with  a 
messuage  and  dwelling-house,  or  other  appurtenances  to  each  of 
the  same  belonging,  situate  in  various  parts  of  Great  Britain, 
have  been  given  and  conveyed  from  time  to  time,  by  the  said 
John  Wesley,  to  certain  persons,  and  their  heirs,  in  each  of  the 
said  gifts  and  conveyances  named,  which  are  enrolled  in  his  Ma- 
jesty’s high  court  of  Chancery,  upon  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
said  John  Wesley,  pursuant  to  the  act  of  Parliament  in  that  case 
made  and  provided.  Upon  Trust,  that  the  trustees  in  the  said 
several  deeds  respectively  named,  and  the  survivors  of  them,  and 
their  heirs  and  assigns,  and  the  trustees  for  the  time  being  to  be 
elected,  as  in  the  said  deeds  is  appointed,  should  permit  and  suffer 
the  said  John  Wesley,  and  such  other  person  and  persons  as  he 
should  for  that  purpose  from  time  to  time  nominate  and  appoint, 
at  all  times  during  his  life,  at  his  will  and  pleasure,  to  have  and 
enjoy  the  free  use  and  benefit  of  the  said  premises,  that  he  the 
said  John  Wesley,  and  such  person  or  persons  as  he  should  nom- 
inate and  appoint,  might  therein  preach  and  expound  God’s  holy 
Word  : And  upon  further  trust,  that  the  said  respective  trustees, 
and  the  survivors  of  them,  and  their  heirs  and  assigns,  and  the 
trustees  for  the  time  being,  should  permit  and  suffer  Charles 
Wesley,  brother  of  the  said  John  Wesley,  and  such  other  person 
and  persons  as  the  said  Charles  Wesley  should  for  that  purpose, 
from  time  to  time  nominate  and  appoint,  in  like  manner  during 


322 


NOTES. 


his  life. — To  have,  use,  and  enjoy  the  said  premises,  respectively 
for  the  like  purposes  aforesaid ; and  after  the  decease  of  the  sur- 
vivor of  them,  the  said  John  Wesley,  and  Charles  Wesley,  then, 
upon  further  trust  that  the  said  respective  trustees,  and  the  sur- 
vivors of  them,  and  their  heirs  and  assigns,  and  the  trustees  for 
the  time  being  for  ever,  should  permit  and  suffer  such  person  and 
persons,  and  for  such  time  and  times  as  should  be  appointed  at 
the  yearly  Conference  of  the  people  called  Methodists  in  London, 
Bristol,  or  Leeds,  and  no  others,  to  have  and  enjoy  the  said 
premises  for  the  purposes  aforesaid  : and  whereas  divers  persons 
have  in  like  manner,  given  or  conveyed  many  chapels,  with  mes- 
suages and  dwelling-houses,  or  other  appurtenances  to  the  same 
belonging,  situate  in  various  parts  of  Great  Britain,  and  also  in 
Ireland,  to  certain  trustees  in  each  of  the  said  gifts  and  convey- 
ances respectively  named,  upon  the  like  trusts,  and  for  the  same 
uses  and  purposes  as  aforesaid,  except  only  that  in  some  of  the 
said  gifts  and  conveyances,  no  life-estate  or  other  interest  is  therein 
or  thereby  given  and  reserved  to  the  said  Charles  Wesley  : and 
whereas  for  rendering  effectual  the  trusts  created  by  the  said  sev- 
eral gifts  and  conveyances,  and  that  no  doubt  or  litigation  may 
arise  with  respect  unto  the  same,  or  interpretation  and  true  mean- 
ing thereof,  it  has  been  thought  expedient  by  the  said  John  Wes- 
ley, on  behalf  of  himself  as  donor  of  the  several  chapels,  with 
messuages,  dwelling-houses,  or  appurtenances  to  the  same  belong- 
ing, given  or  conveyed  to  the  like  uses  and  trusts,  to  explain  the 
words,  Yearly  Conference  of  the  people  called  Methodists^  con- 
tained in  all  the  said  trust  deeds,  and  to  declare  what  persons  are 
members  of  the  said  Conference,  and  how  the  succession  and 
identity  thereof  is  to  be  continued  : Now,  therefore,  these  presents 
witness,  that  for  accomplishing  the  aforesaid  purposes,  the  said 
John  Wesley  does  hereby  declare,  that  the  Conference  of  the 
people  called  Methodists,  in  London,  Bristol,  or  Leeds,  ever  since 
there  hath  been  any  yearly  Conference  of  the  said  people  called 
Methodists,  in  any  of  the  said  places,  hath  always  heretofore  con- 
sisted of  the  preachers  and  expounders  of  God’s  holy  word,  com- 
monly called  Methodist  preachers,  in  connection  with,  and  under 
the  care  of  the  said  John  Wesley,  whom  he  hath  thought  expe- 
dient, year  after  year,  to  summon  to  meet  him,  in  one  or  other  of 
the  said  places  of  London,  Bristol,  or  Leeds,  to  advise  with  them 
for  the  promotion  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ ; to  appoint  the  said 
persons  so  summoned,  and  the  other  preachers  and  expounders  of 


NOTES. 


323 


God’s  holy  word,  also  in  connection  with,  and  under  the  care  of 
the  said  John  Wesley,  not  summoned  to  the  said  yearly  Confer- 
ence,  to  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  the  said  chapels  and  premises 
so  given  and  conveyed  upon  trust  to  the  said  John  Wesley,  and 
such  other  person  and  persons  as  he  shall  appoint  during  his  life  as 
aforesaid  ; and  for  the  expulsion  of  unworthy,  and  admission  of 
new  persons  under  his  care,  and  into  his  connection,  to  he  preach- 
ers and  expounders  as  aforesaid  ; and  also  of  other  persons  upon 
trial  for  the  like  purposes  : the  names  of  all  which  persons  so 
summoned  by  the  said  John  Wesley,  the  persons  appointed,  with 
the  chapels  and  premises  to  which  they  were  so  appointed,  to- 
gether with  the  duration  of  such  appointments,  and  of  those  ex- 
pelled, or  admitted  into  connection,  or  upon  trial,  with  all  other 
matters  transacted  and  done  at  the  said  yearly  Conference,  have 
year  by  year  been  printed  and  published  under  the  title  of  “ Min- 
utes of  Conference,”  and  these  ^presents  further  witness,  and  the 
said  John  Wesley  doth  hereby  avouch  and  further  declare,  that 
the  several  persons  hereinafter  named,  to  wit,  the  said  John 

Wesley  and  Charles  Wesley” 

Then  follow  the  names  of  those  who  then  constituted  the  legal 
Conference,  that  is  to  say,  one  hundred  preachers — the  two  Wes- 
leys inclusive : these  being,  although  some  of  them  are  designated 
“gentlemen” — “Preachers  and  expounders  of  God’s  holy  word, 
under  the  care  and  in  connection  with  the  said  John  Wesley;” 
of  whom  it  is  said  that  they  have  been,  “ and  now  are,  and  do, 
on  the  day  of  the  date  hereof,  constitute  the  members  of  the  said 
Conference,  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the  said 
several  gifts  and  conveyances,  wherein  the  words  ‘ Conference  of 
the  ]peoj)le  called  Methodists^  are  mentioned  and  contained.  And 
that  the  said  several  persons  before  named,  and  their  successors 
for  ever,  to  be  chosen  as  hereinafter  mentioned,  are^and  shall  for 
ever  be  construed,  taken  and  be  the  Conference  of  the  'peo'ple 
called  Methodists.  Nevertheless  upon  the  terms,  and  subject  to 
the  regulations  hereinafter  prescribed,  that  is  to  say  : — 

Then  follow  fifteen  regulations,  or  conditions,  defining  the 
powers  of  this  body  of  preachers  : an  abstract  of  these  conditions 
will  sufficiently  inform  the  reader,  as  to  the  true  intent  and  mean- 
ing of  this  “ Deed  of  Declaration.” 

The  first  article  declares — 

That  the  members  of  the  said  Conference,  and  their  successors 


324 


NOTES. 


for  the  time  being  for  ever,  shall  assemble  once  in  every  year,  at 
London,  Bristol,  or  Leeds  (or  elsewhere),  for  the  purposes  aforesaid ; 
each  yearly  Conference  appointing  the  time  and  place  of  the  next. 

Second.  The  act  of  the  majority  in  number  of  the  Conference 
so  assembled,  shall  be  taken  as  the  act  of  the  whole  Conference 
in  all  cases. 

Third.  That  the  first  act  of  the  Conference  shall  be  to  fill  up 
all  the  vacancies  that  may  have  been  occasioned  by  death  (or  ab- 
sence, under  certain  conditions). 

Fourth.  Conference  shall  not  be  competent  to  act  with  fewer 
than  forty  members  thereof  assembled,  unless  reduced  by  death 
or  absence  (under  circumstances  named)  since  the  last  Confer- 
ence, nor  until  the  vacancies  have  been  filled  up,  so  as  to  make 
up  the  number  of  one  hundred.  No  act  of  the  Conference  shall 
be  valid  unless  forty  members  have  been  present  at  the  time  of 
passing  the  same. 

Fifth.  Conference  shall  continue  assembled  for  a time  not  less 
than  five  days,  nor  more  than  three  weeks.  Nothing  done  at 
other  times  than  during  this  yearly  assemblage  shall  stand  as  an 
act  of  Conference. 

Sixth.  Having  filled  up  all  vacancies,  the  next  act  of  Confer- 
ence shall  be  to  choose  a President  and  Secretary  of  their  assem- 
bly, out  of  themselves,  who  shall  continue  such  until  the  election 
of  another  president  or  secretary,  in  the  next  Conference  ; the 
said  president  shall  have  the  privilege  and  power  of  two  members, 
in  all  acts  of  the  Conference. 

Seventh.  Absence  from  two  successive  Conferences  shall  for- 
feit membership,  that  is  to  say,  at  the  next  following  Conference. 

Eighth.  (This  article  we  give  verbatim  and  entire.)  “ The 
Conference  shall,  and  may  expel  and  put  out  from  being  a mem- 
ber thereof,  or  from  being  in  connection  therewith,  or  from  being 
upon  trial,  any  person,  member  of  the  Conference,  admitted  into 
connection  or  upon  trial,  for  any  cause  which  to  the  Conference 
may  seem  fit  or  necessary ; and  every  member  of  the  Conference 
so  expelled  and  put  out,  shall  cease  to  be  a member  thereof,  to  all 
intents  and  purposes,  as  though  he  was  naturally  dead.  And 
the  Conference,  immediately  after  the  expulsion  of  any  member 
thereof,  as  aforesaid,  shall  elect  another  person  to  be  member  of 
the  Conference,  in  the  stead  of  such  member  so  expelled.” 

Ninth.  The  Conference  shall  have  power  to  admit  into  con- 


NOTES. 


325 


nection  with  tnem,  or  upon  trial,  any  person  or  persons  whom 
they  shall  approve  as  preachers,  under  the  care  and  direction  of 
the  Conference,  such  admissions  being  duly  entered  in  the  Min- 
utes of  Conference. 

Tenth.  No  person  shall  be  elected  as  a member  of  Conference, 
who  has  not  been  one  year  in  connection  as  a preacher. 

Eleventh.  The  Conference  shall  not  appoint  any  person  to 
preach  in  the  chapels  aforesaid,  who  is  not  either  a member  of 
the  Conference,  or  has  been  admitted  upon  trial  as  a preacher, 
nor  appoint  any  person  for  more  than  three  years  successively  to 
the  same  chapel,  except  ordained  ministers  of  the  Church  of 
England. 

Twelfth.  The  Conference  may  appoint  its  meetings  elsewhere 
than  in  London,  Bristol,  or  Leeds,  when  expedient  so  to  do. 

Thirteenth.  The  Conference  may  delegate  its  powers  to  any  of 
its  members,  who  shall  be  appointed  to  act  on  its  behalf  in  Ire- 
land, or  elsewhere,  out  of  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain,  the  acts 
of  such  delegate  or  delegates,  when  duly  appointed,  being  valid  as 
its  own. 

Fourteenth.  All  acts  of  Conference  shall  be  entered  in  the 
Minutes  of  the  same,  and  publicly  read,  and  then  subscribed  by  the 
President  and  Secretary  thereof,  for  the  time  being,  during  the  time 
such  Conference  shall  be  assembled,  such  entries  being  received 
and  taken,  in  all  cases,  as  sufficient  evidence  of  the  acts  of  Con- 
ference. No  act  not  so  entered  and  signed  shall  be  of  any  force. 

Lastly.  Provision  is  made  on  the  supposition  that,  for  three 
successive  years.  Conference  may  be  reduced  to  fewer  than  forty 
members ; or  that  it  may  neglect  to  meet  annually  for  the  pur- 
poses aforesaid ; then,  and  in  that  case  the  Conference  of  the  peo- 
ple called  Methodists  shall  be  extinguished,  and  all  its  powers 
and  privileges  shall  cease ; and  in  that  event  the  chapels  and 
premises  conveyed  by  this  deed  shall  vest  in  the  trustees  for  the 
time  being,  and  their  successors  for  ever,  upon  trust  that  they, 
and  the  survivors  of  them,  shall  appoint  such  persons  to  preach 
in  the  said  chapels,  and  in  such  manner  as  to  them  shall  seem 
proper. 

Then  follows  a provision  maintaining  the  life  estate  of  John 
and  Charles  Wesley  in  the  chapels  of  the  Society.  This  deed 
was  signed,  sealed,  and  enrolled  in  Chancery  in  1784.  It  con- 
tinues to  be  binding  in  law  upon  the  Society. 


326 


NOTES. 


This  declaratory  instrument,  taken  in  connection  with  the  trust 
deeds  of  Wesleyan  Chapels,  and  other  property,  exhibits  the 
Wesleyan  establishment  in  the  light  of  a decisive  contrast  with 
any  church  or  community  wherewith  it  might  be  compared. 
Among  the  English  Dissenters,  generally,  the  Meeting-house  or 
Chapel,  with  its  appurtenances,  is  vested  in  local  trustees,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  society  therein  usually  assembling.  The  preacher 
or  minister,  elected  by  the  society  (“  Church  and  Congregation,” 
or  the  “ Church,”  the  congregation  informally  assenting)  is  then 
legally  seised  of  the  building,  for  the  purposes  of  public  worship  ; 
and  he  receives  the  rents  or  revenues  of  any  property  that  has 
been  bequeathed  to  the  society,  as  his  fee  simple.  The  control  of 
the  people  over  the  minister  resolves  itself  legally  into  their  indi- 
vidual liberty  to  vacate  their  pews,  and  thus  to  leave  him  to  the 
enjoyment  of  the  walls,  and  the  endowments.  But  in  fact,  the 
instances  are  very  rare  in  which  things  are  pushed  to  this  ex- 
treme. Effectively  there  is  an  understanding  between  the  con- 
gregation and  the  minister,  to  this  effect,  that  when  his  services 
cease  to  be  acceptable  to  them,  or  to  those  among  them  whose 
influence  is  paramount,  he  retires.  It  is  evident  that  a relation- 
ship of  this  sort  is  quite  susceptible  of  being  so  worked,  in  prac- 
tice, as  to  leave  no  substantial  ground  of  complaint,  either  with 
the  people  or  the  minister  ; all  it  wants  to  secure  his  comfort  and 
independence,  is  some  easily  imagined  modification  of  the  congre- 
gational principle. 

But  the  Wesleyan  system,  as  constituted  by  Wesley,  thor- 
oughly and  absolutely  ignores  the  people,  and  it  did  this  as  well 
legally  as  ecclesiastically ; and  hence,  from  the  moment  almost  of 
his  death,  to  the  present  time,  successive  heavings  and  convulsions 
— allayed  for  a time  by  concessions,  palliative  rather  than  rudi- 
mental,  have  made  up  the  history  of  the  Society.  Nevertheless 
such  convulsions  are  so  far  auspicious,  that  they  indicate  an  in- 
terior vitality,  and  could  never  occur  in  a society  that  was  not 
powerfully  wrought  upon  by  a deep-seated  attachment  to  the  sys- 
tem itself  Tumultuous  secessions  may  diminish  Wesleyanism 
for  a time , but  they  will  not  destroy,  or  permanently  weaken  it. 
What  it  might  more  fear  would  be  the  occurrence  of  noiseless 
defections,  from  year  to  year — the  falling  away  of  its  people  who 
— with  reason,  or  without  reason,  yet  becoming  alienated  from 
the  Wesleyan  organization,  should  cease  to  be  seen  in  their  places. 


NOTES. 


327 


Too  often  such  a falling  away  would  be — a relapse  into  the 
world  ; but  even  if  it  went  to  swell  the  numbers  of  other  churches, 
it  would  be  thought  of  with  anxiety  and  grief  by  many  who, 
though  not  of  the  society,  cordially  desire  its  continued  prosperity. 

The  reader  will  not  doubt  that  the  writer  has  given  some  at- 
tention to  the  controversies  that,  of  late,  have  agitated  the  Wes- 
leyan body  : a pile  of  publications,  thereto  relating,  he  has  thought 
it  incumbent  upon  him  to  read  ; but  he  is  very  far  from  thinking 
himself  called  upon  to  express  any  opinion  whatever  upon  the 
points  debated  in  these  pamphlets.  The  several  questions,  either 
of  Wesleyan  constitutional  structure,  or  of  discipline,  therein  dis- 
cussed, are,  unquestionably,  of  high  moment ; but  they  are  quite 
foreign  to  the  purport  of  this  volume,  which  relates  only  to  Meth- 
odism— now  long  ago  gone  from  among  us,  and  to  Wesley’s  Wes- 
leyanism,  considered  as  a part  of  the  writer’s  general  subject.  To 
form  a competent  opinion  upon  the  question — How  far  Wesley’s 
Wesley anism  is  the  Wesley anism  of  the  present  time,  would  de- 
mand, not  merely  an  extensive  reading  of  polemical  Tracts,  Min- 
utes of  Conference,  and  Reports  of  legal  proceedings,  but  much 
personal  conference  with  leading  persons  on  both  sides  the  pend- 
ing controversy.  To  no  such  scrutiny  as  this  is  the  writer  im- 
pelled, either  by  a sense  of  duty,  or  by  his  tastes  : controversy  of 
all  kinds  he  abhors ; nor  should  easily  be  induced  to  make  him- 
self one  in  any  discussions  whatever,  that  he  saw  to  be  moving 
the  passions  of  the  disputants ; nevertheless,  while  thus  thinking 
himself  quite  free  to  hold  off  from  strife,  and  while  using  this 
liberty,  and  intending  to  use  it,  the  writer  anticipates,  as  probable, 
encountering  a smart  rejoinder  from  some  who  will  say — “ You 
abstain  from  mingling  in  the  fray  ; but,  in  fact,  you  take  a part 
in  it,  by  expressing  opinions  concerning  Wesley’s  Institute,  of 
which  a factious  use  will  be  made  by  those  who  now  trouble  our 
Israel.”  It  may  be  so  ; yet  the  writer  has  seen  no  way  of  fore- 
fending  this  possible  consequence.  Never  hitherto  has  he  writ- 
ten or  printed  a line  which  did  not  convey  his  sincere  and  undis- 
guised belief,  and  he  can  not — at  so  late  a time — learn  the  art  of 
dressing  his  published  opinions  from  motives  of  fear  or  favor. 
The  Wesleyan  reader  he  will  ask  to  be  content  with  the  assur- 
ance that,  to  witness  the  effective  pacification  of  the  Society,  and 
its  re-instauration  on  principles  substantially  apostolic^  would  be 
an  event  giving  him  the  most  cordial  satisfaction. 


328 


NOTES. 


The  time  is  not  yet  come — ^perhaps  it  is  remote — ^when  any 
one  of  the  existing  (orthodox)  communions  might,  without  dam- 
age to  the  community,  fail  from  its  place  among  us.  Each  of 
these  bodies  has  its  destined  function  to  discharge,  during  this 
transition  period.  The  means,  the  labors,  the  organization  of 
each  are  too  few,  too  small ; all  is  too  little  : — the  aggregate  of 
Christian  ministrations  in  this  home  of  Christianity,  is  a tenth  of 
what  it  should  be. 


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